Scholars@Duke
Charles Franklin Starmer

Charles Franklin Starmer

Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
Computer Science
frank.starmer@duke.edu
Duke Box 2741, Durham, NC 27710
2424 Erwin Road Ste G04, Hock Plaza Ste G04 Duke Box 27, Durham, NC 27705

Overview

Though trained formally as an electrical engineer, I found myself starting my career in the Cardiology Division of the Department of Medicine. My first research project was to explore the nature of electically induced ventricular fibrillation - an introduction to reentrant cardiac arrhythmias. Though VF is complex, this work ignited my curioisity about the underlying nature of cellular communication - whether electrical via gap junctions or chemical via ligand-receptor interactions. Along the way, I found myself developing the computational infrastructure for the Cardiology Databank, starting the Computer Science Department and eventually finding my way to the laboratory. With my long term collaborator, Gus Grant, we explored single cardiac ion channels, drug interactions with cardiac ion channels and found ourselves facing my initial interests in reentrant cardiac arrhythmias, in this case, induced by drug-channel interactions. The modeling of cardiac and neuronal action potentials resulted in identifying the determinants of the cardiac vulnerable period and today is referred to as computational biology. Computational biology has the unique feature of providing a direct look at underlying modeled processes in contrast to laboratory investigations where much is hidden. For me, identifying the physical basis of generic biological processes (e.g. excitation, propagation, ligand-receptor binding and transporters) via computational models is simply great fun.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor Emeritus of Computer Science · 1997 - Present Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News

Published October 29, 2013
Dad’s Wisdom Made Learning Part of Life

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Recent Publications

SAN DIEGO BIOMEDICAL SYMPOSIUM, 1971, PROCEEDINGS, v 10.

Journal Article · January 1, 2020 Following is a continuation of the listing of papers presented: Automatic Calibration of On-Line Respiratory Measurements. By J. O. Beaumont and W. A. Radke. System for Storage and Retrieval of Textual and Numeric Data Collected During Patient Monitoring. ... Cite

SAN DIEGO BIOMEDICAL SYMPOSIUM, 1971, PROCEEDINGS, v 10.

Journal Article · January 1, 2017 Following is a continuation of the listing of papers presented: Automatic Calibration of On-Line Respiratory Measurements. By J. O. Beaumont and W. A. Radke. System for Storage and Retrieval of Textual and Numeric Data Collected During Patient Monitoring. ... Cite

Smartphone spectrophotometer for point-of-care diagnostics in low-resource settings

Conference IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference R10 Htc 2015 Co Located with 8th International Conference on Humanoid Nanotechnology Information Technology Communication and Control Environment and Management Hnicem 2015 · January 25, 2016 Colorimetry based point-of-care diagnostics provide an inexpensive technique for healthcare and environmental monitoring during disaster relief operations. Conventional equipments for measuring colorimetric assays are bulky and expensive, making them unsui ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants

Electrophysiology Responses To Ion Channel Blockade

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 1984 - 1998

Electrophysiologic Responses To Ion Channel Blockade

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 1984 - 1997

Electrophysiolgic Responses To Ion Channel Blockade

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 1984 - 1997

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Education, Training & Certifications

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 1968 Ph.D.
Duke University · 1965 M.S.E.E.
Duke University · 1963 B.S.E.E.

External Links

Frank's Photo Essays