Cloud computing and validation of expandable in silico livers

The local cluster technology was duplicated in the Amazon EC2 cloud platform. Synthetic modeling protocols were followed to identify a successful parameterization. Experiment sample sizes (number of simulated lobules) on both platforms were 49, 70, 84, and 152 (cloud only). Experimental indistinguishability was demonstrated for ISL outflow profiles of diltiazem using both platforms for experiments consisting of 84 or more samples. The process was analogous to demonstration of results equivalency from two different wet-labs.The results provide additional evidence that disposition simulations using ISLs can cover the behavior space of liver experiments in distinct experimental contexts (there is in silico-to-wet-lab phenotype similarity). The scientific value of experimenting with multiscale biomedical models has been limited to research groups with access to computer clusters. The availability of cloud technology coupled with the evidence of scientific equivalency has lowered the barrier and will greatly facilitate model sharing as well as provide straightforward tools for scaling simulations to encompass greater detail with no extra investment in hardware.The scientific value of multilevel, multiscale, computational, biomedical models will be greatly enhanced by making them broadly available and sufficiently manipulable to address a variety of scientific questions at reasonable costs, regardless of the hardware at the researcher's disposal. The availability of cloud technology opens the door to that eventuality. However, such models are analogous to an entire, specialized, wet laboratory. As with wet laboratories, insuring scientific equivalency of duplicate experimental systems in different laboratories is a necessary precondition for placing confidence in the results of experiments arising from those laboratories. A goal of this project was to test the scientific equivalence of experiments conducted using multilevel, multiscale, In Silico Livers (ISLs) executed on