Most human disease (chronic or susceptibility to a virus) seems to have about a 50:50 mix of genetic predisposition and 'environmental' (i.e. non-genetic) association. The MBIE-funded 12 Labours project is attempting to bring both of these factors to bear on three specific medical challenges (the three Exemplar Projects) by building three technology platforms - P1: multiscale modelling; P2: model-based clinical workflows; and P3: a common infrastructure for handing data from wearable and implantable devices.

The talk will address one aspect of this challenge for P1. Namely, how do we create a modelling infrastructure that can connect multiscale gene/protein/cell/tissue/organ models with anatomical systems that involve the whole body: the cardiovascular system, the autonomic nervous system, the enteric nervous system, the epithelial integumentary system, the lymphatic system, and the musculoskeletal system (for force transmission).

We certainly do not have all the answers to this challenge, but we are beginning to construct what we call 'functional connectivity' maps that we think will help link this whole body connectivity with our standards-based infrastructure for multiscale modelling (based on the CellML and FieldML standards that ABI has pioneered).

Prof. Peter Hunter

Director, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland

Peter is Director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests are in modeling human physiology using an anatomical and biophysically-based multiscale approach that links molecular processes to tissue level phenotypes. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society (London and NZ), Executive Chair of the World Council of Biomechanics and a Vice-President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS).

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