Klinke

Dr. David J. Klinke II is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering in the WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resources (CEMR). In addition to his position in Chemical Engineering, he is a Member of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cell Biology in the WVU School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 1998, where his research focus was on developing detailed chemical kinetic models of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. From 1999 until joining WVU in 2006, he provided strategic direction in developing mathematical models of immunologic and metabolic diseases for one of the commercial leaders in the emerging field of systems biology: Entelos, Inc. His current research applies the computational tools of engineering analysis to biological problems in cancer immunology and cellular signal transduction. A visual representation of the recent publications from the lab are shown below.



This isn't your parent's chemical engineering.
Here at West Virginia University, Prof. Klinke’s research program builds on his experience developing large-scale mathematical models of human pathophysiology. Building mathematical models of disease is a collaborative effort between chemical engineers and life scientists to extract information from the scientific literature to define, calibrate, and validate these models experimentally. Understanding biology via computational modeling is very similar to traditional research in chemical engineering. At the most basic level, chemical engineering is a field in which basic science data is integrated into computational frameworks. Traditionally, chemical engineering integrates basic chemistry data into computational models to develop new chemical products or processes. These models are used to make predictions. Predictions, as a quantitative representation of our knowledge, are used to confirm our knowledge of a system or identify area where our understanding may be inaccurate. Identifying shortcomings in our knowledge is an essential part of how people learn. Moving forward into the 21st Century, there is an urgent need for integrating basic biology data into computational frameworks to understand disease pathophysiology and aid in the rational design of novel therapeutics. Engineering better medicines is one of the Grand Challenges in Engineering, which highlight the evolving role of engineering in society. It is our goal to become leaders in the field of chemical engineering by fulfilling this urgent need. Interdisciplinary research is an essential component of a contemporary engineering education. Our research involves both the Department of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cell Biology in the School of Medicine at West Virginia University. The wet lab is located on the Health Sciences campus while the computational lab is located on the Evansdale campus. The Evansdale campus is less than one mile west of the Health Sciences campus and connected by the Personal Rapid Transit system that provides free transportation between the two campuses.