Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Note that one of the major goals of the VPH/Physiome project is to link clinical
imaging data (and associated models of tissue/organ structure and function) with ge-
nomics and proteomics data and models for an individual patient using more subject-
specific and scientifically based models. To achieve this goal the VPH/Physiome
project has to integrate much more with experimental data and models at the level
of molecular systems biology - there are currently good links with the systems biol-
ogy community dealing with biochemical networks (who have adopted the SBML
standard), but much stronger connection is needed with the molecular biophysics
community for whom biophysically based models take account of 3D spatial infor-
mation. This will be a major goal for the next few years.
Finally, establishing a robust infrastructure for ensuring the availability of veri-
fied, validated, annotated and reproducible models is a necessary first step in provid-
ing a quantitative modelling framework for medical applications, but applying these
models in a clinical setting brings a whole new set of challenges. Two new European
projects in particular are now addressing these clinical connection issues. One is the
RICORDO project (ricordo.eu) led by EBI, which is developing a multiscale on-
tological framework in support of the VPH community to improve interoperability
amongst its data and modelling resources. The other is the VPH-Share project which
will provide the essential services, building on the VPH/Physiome computational in-
frastructure, for the sharing of clinical and research data and tools, facilitating the
construction and operation of new VPH workflows, and collaborations between the
members of the VPH community.
The biomedical community, working with the bioengineering community, now
has the opportunity to assemble the molecular pieces, from 50 years of reduction-
ist science, to understand genotype-phenotype relationships by linking databases of
genetic and proteomic data to anatomy and function at the cell, tissue and organ
levels. Biophysically based computational modelling of the human body, applied to
human physiology and the diagnosis and treatment of disease, could revolutionise
21
st
century bio-sciences and medicine. We have discussed the infrastructure being
built for the VPH-Physiome project and illustrated its use with a clinically oriented
project on diagnosis and treatment planning for heart disease. The success of this and
many other similar exciting opportunities is highly dependent on the development,
adoption and integration of ICT and eHealth infrastructures using the tools, model
repositories and workflows being developed for the VPH-Physiome project.
Acknowledgements.
The development of standards, tools and databases for the VPH/Physiome
project is being funded by many public good funding agencies in Europe (e.g. the EU ICT VPH 2,
4 & 6 calls and particularly the NoE and euHeart projects), the US (the MSM Physiome RFPs) and
many other countries including the UK (especially the Wellcome Trust), Japan and New Zealand.
The authors thank the many people from many different groups around the globe who have con-
tributed to the infrastructure described here - for details see the websites given for the various soft-
ware projects described in the document. Funding from the Wellcome Trust for the Heart Physiome
Project and the European Union for the VPH Network of Excellence (VPH NoE FP7-ICT2008-
223920) and the euHeart project (VPH euHeart FP7-ICT2008-224495) is gratefully acknowledged.
