2016 Gibbons Lectures:

Medical Applications of Information Technology : Computational Physiology

Speaker:
Distinguished Professor Peter Hunter, Director of Auckland Bioengineering Institute, the University of Auckland

Multi-scale computational models of organs and organ systems are being developed under the umbrella of the Physiome Project of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) and the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) project funded by the European Commission. These computational physiology models deal with multiple physical processes (coupled tissue mechanics, electrical activity, fluid flow, etc) and multiple spatial and temporal scales. They are intended both to help understand physiological function and to provide a basis for diagnosing and treating pathologies in a clinical setting. A long term goal of the project is to use computational modeling to analyze integrative biological function in terms of underlying structure and molecular mechanisms. It is also establishing web-accessible physiological databases dealing with model-related data at the cell, tissue, organ and organ system levels. The talk will discuss the current state of the standards, databases and software being developed to support robust and reproducible multi-scale models for the VPH/Physiome project.

Professor Peter Hunter FRS is Director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) and Director of the Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence. 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 was awarded the Rutherford Medal and a KEA World Class NZ award in 2009 and appointed to the NZ Order of Merit in 2010. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society (London and NZ), Chair of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and President-elect for the World Council of Biomechanics.