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Virtual heart helps medical research Having the world’s first computer model of a human heart means University of Auckland researchers can use the model to help diagnose diseases of the heart, design medical devices and speed up the discovery of new drugs. Work on developing the virtual heart began 25 years ago as part of a collaboration between the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering, which led to the establishment of The Bioengineering Institute headed by Professor Peter Hunter and Associate Professor Bruce Smaill. They began by using mathematical techniques to look at the underlying equations that govern the behaviour of the heart coupled with detailed measurement of the structure of cardiac tissue. Professor Peter Hunter Key words: – computer modelling of heart, musculoskeletal system, lung physiome. About computer models: – computer modelling of the heart allows researchers to subject it to a range of different influences, from drugs to stress and see how it affects the heart from a cellular to a whole organ level. Aims of the research: – to develop computer models of major human body organs and systems and eventually create a virtual body – the major long term goal is to use the models in drug discovery once the models contain more detail on subcellular processes such as signal transduction pathways and gene regulatory networks. What this research by researchers in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) has achieved: – the world’s first anatomically- and biophysically-based computer model of a human heart – models of the lungs, digestive system and musculoskeletal system are under development – the musculoskeletal model is already being used for diagnostics, virtual surgery and design of medical devices – computer models are also being used for a number of surgical training and educational applications. Professor Hunter says this has allowed them to create mathematical models linking all the information right down to the cellular level so they can understand cell behaviour. That means they can look at how the heart reacts when subjected to chemical or electrical changes, drugs or other influences. “The models allow you to extract a lot more information than you would otherwise be able to. For example, it is not possible to directly measure stress in the heart. Whereas with measurements of deformation using tagged MRI by Dr Alistair Young in the ABI, the models provide the stresses throughout the heart and therefore the energy consumption and the link to coronary blood supply and so on,” he says. Professor Hunter explains that a lot of heart-related diseases are associated with quite complex processes from the sub-cellular tissue to the whole organ. “The only way one can understand and provide diagnostic and treatment strategies is by using modelling to interpret the complexities. It is a very common approach in all other areas of engineering and physics, but its application to medicine is relatively recent.” Using similar techniques, Dr Merryn Tawhai is leading a team which is developing a computer model of the lungs, while models of the digestive system (led by Associate Professor Andrew Pullan) and the musculoskeletal systems are also well-developed. The latter has been developed to the point where there is preliminary use of the model for surgical planning. Dr Hunter says the long-term aim is to develop a virtual human body. “Ultimately we would like to be able to look at the effect of a gene mutation, for example, and be able to follow it all the way through, from cell, to tissue, to whole organ,” he says. “There are potential applications in diagnostics, drug discovery, medical devices and so on. But the biggest pay-off is going to be linking the genome to the whole organism.” This research is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, NERF grant from FRST, Marsden Fund, the Wellcome Trust, NIH, NZ Govt (via TEC) Centre of Research Excellence grants to the Auckland Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery and to NZIMA, and also internal grants from The University of Auckland and UniServices. HRC09 2006 Level 3, 110 Stanley Street, Auckland PO Box 5541, Wellesley Street, Auckland, NZ Telephone 64 9 303 5200 Facsimile 64 9 377 9988 Website www.hrc.govt.nz Health Research Council of New Zealand Te Kaunihera Rangahau Hauora o Aotearoa