Salvador de la Torre Gonzalez

Google Summer of Code 2025 Contributor

email: delatorregonzalezsalvador[at]gmail[dot]com

Education: Mathematics and Computer Engineering, University of Seville, Spain

Completed project: CARTopiaX: an Agent-Based Simulation of CAR T-Cell Therapy built on BioDynaMo
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of cancer immunotherapy that engineers a patient’s T cells to recognize and eliminate malignant cells. Although highly effective in leukemias and other hematological cancers, this therapy faces significant challenges in solid tumors due to the complex and heterogeneous tumor microenvironment. CARTopiaX is an advanced agent-based model developed to address this challenge, using the mathematical framework proposed in the Nature paper “In silico study of heterogeneous tumour-derived organoid response to CAR T-cell therapy,” successfully replicating its core results. Built on BioDynaMo, a high-performance, open-source platform for large-scale and modular biological modeling, CARTopiaX enables detailed exploration of complex biological interactions, hypothesis testing, and data-driven discovery within solid tumor microenvironments. The project achieved major milestones, including simulations that run more than twice as fast as previous model, allowing rapid scenario exploration and robust hypothesis validation; high-quality, well-structured, and maintainable C++ code developed following modern software engineering principles; and a scalable, modular, and extensible architecture that fosters collaboration, customization, and the continuous evolution of an open-source ecosystem. Altogether, this work represents a meaningful advancement in computational biology, providing researchers with a powerful tool to investigate CAR T-cell dynamics in solid tumor and accelerating scientific discovery while reducing the time and cost associated with experimental wet-lab research.

Project Proposal: URL

Mentors: Vassil Vassilev, Lukas Breitwieser, Luciana Melina Luque, Tobias Duswald

Ongoing project: CARTopiaX: Extending a Next-Generation Platform for Computational Cancer Biology
This project proposes a comprehensive strategy to extend the CARTopiaX platform within BioDynaMo to replicate a wider range of in vitro observations relevant to CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors. By incorporating additional agents, microenvironmental factors and interaction rules, combined with robust parameter calibration strategies such as Bayesian optimization and evolutionary algorithms, the enhanced model aims to capture critical dynamics that influence therapeutic outcomes, providing a flexible and powerful tool for in silico hypothesis testing. If successful, the extended CARTopiaX model will serve as a reliable platform for exploring CAR T-cell therapies and has the potential to generate high-impact insights in computational cancer biology. By bridging experimental data with predictive modeling, the project could accelerate the translation of in silico findings into actionable guidance for experimental and clinical research.

Project Proposal: URL

Mentors: Vassil Vassilev, Lukas Breitwieser, Luciana Melina Luque

Presentations

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