Transcript - Biomed Town

Toward the
Virtual Physiological Human:
a primer for Researchers
Official Presentation of the
STEP CONSORTIUM
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The trend toward descriptive
• There is a growing consensus that many
research questions can be properly
addressed only by accumulating observations
collected at various research or clinical
centres into a repository accessible virtually
by all researchers
• Obvious examples are rare diseases,
cerebral aneurysms, osteoporosis, etc.
• NIH policy for data sharing is a concrete
example
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The trend toward integrative
• Biomedical research is constantly bending
toward higher levels of integration
• Researchers combine observations taken at
different dimensional or temporal scales, with
different instrumentations, etc.
• The integration is also happening across
research sub-domains (e.g. genetics &
biomechanics) and across sub-systems (e.g.
skeletal & circulatory systems)
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The trend toward Predictive
• Computer-based modelling is used routinely in
engineering, meteorology, traffic control, etc.
• The introduction of predictive models as support to
the clinical decision has been slow and difficult
• There are now evidences of clinical use of
predictive models:
– Various physical models in Computer Aided Diagnosis,
e.g. FE models for breast cancer
– Molecular pathway modelling in the design of new drugs
– FE models to predict the risk of bone fracture in
reconstructive surgery and in osteoporosis
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The human Puzzle
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The human Puzzle
• The human body is currently investigated as
if it is jigsaw puzzle made of a trillion pieces
• We are trying to understand the whole picture
by looking at a single piece, or at a few
closely interconnected pieces
• We do need a frame, within which we can
finally start to place the pieces all together,
and the glue that connect them
• The frame is not the whole picture, but is the
only way we might hope to see it one day
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Paradigmatic Shift in
Biomedical Research
Complement
Reductionism
With
Integrationism
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The name of the Rose
Physiome
System Biology
Integrative Biology
Integrative Research
Integrative Medicine
Integrative Physiology
Multiscale Bioengineering
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Integration across ….
Across sub-systems
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Integration across ….
Organism (7)
Across
Temporal scales
OrganSystem(6
)
Organ (5)
Tissue (4)
Cell (3)
Across
dimensional scales
Molecule (2)
Atom (1)
H H
C C
H H
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Integration across ….
Medicine
Across Disciplines
BioEngineering
Biology
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Paradigmatic Shift in
Biomedical Research
• laboratory and clinical observation are cumulated
and made accessible by all those who can use
them to develop or to validate new hypotheses
• knowledge we have on a sub-system, a certain
dimensional scale, a certain biophysical aspect
can be formalised and interconnected to those
other are developing on contiguous sub-systems,
scales, domains
• We call this new approach Integrative Research
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Integrative Research
• The Integrative Research approach
requires a radical transformation on the
way biomedical research is conducted
• It is necessary to create a framework
made of technology and methods
• We call this framework
Virtual Physiological Human
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Virtual Physiological Human
• The Virtual Physiological Human is a
methodological and technological
framework that once established will
enable the investigation of the human
body as a single complex system
• This framework should be descriptive,
integrative and predictive
© 2007 STEP Consortium
EuroPhysiome: Scope
• The scope of the EuroPhysiome Initiative is to
promote the development of the Virtual
Physiological Human, a methodological and
technological framework that will enable the
investigation of the human body as a single
complex system
• We claim that, given sufficient resources, the
European Research System can develop in the
next 10 years the Virtual Physiological Human
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Seeding the EuroPhysiome:
a roadmap to the
Virtual Physiological Human
• STEP is developing this roadmap through a
consensus process involving hundreds of experts
and the representatives of clinical, industrial and
societal stakeholders
• The RoadMap is a document that describes the
research and technological development that Europe
should follow to achieve the realisation of the Virtual
Physiological Human
© 2007 STEP Consortium
The road to the Road Map
The road to the Road Map
VPH Research Road Map
• Public draft available
– http://www.europhysiome.org/RoadMap
• Final version will be available at the
same location from 31 March 2007
• Stay tuned! Join our Internet
community: http://www.biomedtown.org
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Toward the VPH: Phase #1
• VPH-related research projects in IST:
– AneurIST (neurovascular pathology)
– ImmunoGrid (immune system physiology)
– LHDL (musculoskeletal system physiology)
2005 - 2010
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Toward the VPH: Phase #2
• Building the EuroPhysiome
– STEP Action: consensus process to write
the VPH research roadmap
• http://www.europhysiome.org
– Biomed Town:Internet community reserved
to the biomedical researchers
• http://www.biomedtown.org
2006 - 2007
© 2007 STEP Consortium
Toward the VPH: Phase #3
• VPH research in multiple FP7 programs
– Health (DGRes):
• System Biology: linking genome, proteome and physiome
• Clinical applications of VPH models
– IST (DGInfso):
• VPH Technology development
• Large scale infrastructures
• VPH Knowledge management
• Simulation and visualisation
2007 - 2016
© 2007 STEP Consortium