Matrix Matters

How the ocean can help us heal complex chronic disease

Kristen, Jody, Vishwan, Kerstin, Carol (& newbies welcome too! :)

The human body is its own ecosystem -- much like the ocean -- with resilience, hysteresis, synergistic properties, and multi-system dynamics that depend on matrix conditions. Can we use our understanding of the ocean and ecosystems to help us heal? Can we model different scales -- an ocean, a human body, and a microbial community -- to explore ecosystem/human/microbial health in a holistic context that depends on shared key elements like flow & trace minerals as building blocks for function? As one example to think about, chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS or Lyme disease disrupt the immune system and human body functions (e.g., methylation pathways, detox pathways), preventing optimal function that weakens the human body and makes it vulnerable to other infections. It’s a downward spiral of negative feedbacks, analogous to a backed-up, atrophying ocean or estuary that causes fish kills, destroys coral reefs, etc... analogous to microbial communities that shift when environmental/matrix condition change. I suspect our knowledge of the ocean & large ecosystems, which we can see and visualize, can inform new thinking about system dynamics for health & recovery at the scale of a human body and at the scale of individual microbes & microbial communities...

How the ocean can help us heal complex chronic disease -- Matrix Matters!

To date on this project, Jody, Kerstin, Carol, Vishwa, and Kristen have narrowed the scope to focus in on a NetLogo Membrane Formation model that simulates self-emergent properties of cellular lipid bilayers. We're going to build on this by adding cellular context and exploring how different environmental contexts affect self-assembling lipid bilayer formations, using simple static forces and Bruce Lipton's "Biology of Belief" ideas... that scale up to human body/organs function... and relate to the ocean (e.g., Renee Quinton's work on trace mineral balance in the human body & ocean waters).

We currently have three prongs to our SFI group project, in the form of different deliverables:

   (1) SFI group modeling project - NetLogo Membrane Formation model amidst different matrix conditions.
   (2) "How the Ocean Heals Lyme Disease" presentation at medical conference, June 22, in Dallas TX (Kristen) -- Practice talk 4:00 PM Sunday, June 16th. Everyone welcome!
   (3) Oligotherapy, nano-silver, nano-gold manuscript  for a peer-reviewed journal (Kristen et al.).