Why do we need a model to predict how our stomachs will handle medicines taken by mouth? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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StomachSim is the name of a computational model developed by Johns Hopkins engineer Rajit Mittal and colleagues to help predict how well oral medicines might work. Mittal says the anatomy of the stomach itself must be accounted for.

And the reason by the way is our stomach is a highly asymmetric organ, it kind of goes down and bends to the right so it’s almost like there’s a little bit of a receptacle at the bottom of the stomach, so it you lie on the right then you basically decant the stomach into the intestines.  :16

Mittal says StomachSim has multiple applications.

We could develop a software that simulates what’s happening in the stomach and use that as a way to provide a new tool for drug manufacturers and the FDA when they are trying to test how effective a pill could be. What we are able to do for the first time is really put some numbers behind this using a model.  :17

Mittal says the model may also reduce or even eliminate the need for human and animal testing. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.