The ISBGroup Blog

We are looking for a programmer to work on the interface for the digital twin project. Please spread to anyone you think would be a good match!

Ansök här / Apply here

Here is a short film about the Digital Twin project.

Our work with the new digital twin technology – an interactive computer model, describing the multi-organ, and multi-timescale biochemistry and physiology of a specific person – has now led to a first prototype which is almost ready to be tested in a clinical environment. However, to be able to do that, we need to have suitable user interface, and this is where you come in!

In english:

“We are looking for someone experienced in working with programming, visualisation, software architecture, and user friendliness. Submitting a sample of previous work with you application will increase your chances, in particular apps and software projects that includes visualisation. You are interested in design and you are an attentive listener who can work in a group setting to interpret the best solution to what researchers, clinical personnel and private users need.

Your tasks will primarily be development of the front-end software for research and clinical environments, focusing on visualisation and app-design. ISB group at IMT have developed a so called Digital Twin, computer model copies of a patient, which will function as support for the Health Conversation. We have a few previously developed prototypes, but now we need someone to help us make a version with a user interface suitable for testing in clinical studies. You will work mostly with the coding of the software, but some design and user interaction and evaluation is also included.”

På svenska:

“Vi söker nu någon som har erfarenhet av att arbeta med programmering, visualisering, mjukvaruarkitetktur och användarvänlighet.  Tidigare arbetsprov av egna utvecklade appar och andra mjukvaruprojekt, speciellt sådana som inkluderar en visualiseringskomponent, är en viktig del av bedömningen. Du är antagligen intresserad av design och en god lyssnare som kan arbeta i grupp och tolka vad både forskare, vårdpersonal och privata användare behöver. 

Dina arbetsuppgifter kommer bestå i framför allt arbete med att utveckla front-end mjukvara för en vetenskaplig och klinisk miljö, med fokus på visualisering och app-design. I ISB-group på IMT har vi utvecklat en så kallad Digital Tvilling, datorkopior av en patient, som ska fungera som stöd i vårdens hälsosamtal. Vi har tidigare utvecklat ett par prototyper, men behöver nu någon som gör en första mer färdig version av användargränssnittet att testa i kliniska studier.  Du kommer att arbeta mycket med själva kodningen av mjukvaran, men en del design och användarinteraktion ingår också. “

If you have any questions, please contact Karin Lundengård at karin.lundengard@liu.se

We have several master-thesis and internship students working in our group this spring. Here is a small introduction!

Gustav Magnusson
I’m a master student in Physics with a hope to contribute something to the world of Systems Biology. The aim of my master thesis is to work with the Digital Twin, to put together the various models produced here at ISB to form an interface for users such as patient and researchers to test various situations and hypothesis. The goal is also to work on my own model which could be a part of the Digital Twin, perhaps with focus towards phyisical training, atherosclerosis or the immune system.

Lucas Raihle
Hi! I’m Lucas and I will be interning at ISB group during March-September. My project will revolve around making a model that can describe how diet affects the progression of NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). NAFLD is the most common liver disease in the world and is heavily correlated with the metabolic syndrome. Understanding the progression of NAFLD could lead to more effective forms of treatment and diagnosing. I’m happy to join this group and excited to start my project.

Johanna Hansson
Hi, my name is Johanna Hansson and I have just started an internship at ISB group. I will be working on a project to describe the disease progression of atherosclerosis to stroke and how the consequential oxygen loss affects the brain function. First, I will develop a mechanistic atherosclerosis model and later connect it with existing models of e.g. blood flow and stroke. Understanding atherosclerosis and its relationship with stroke could help predict who is at risk of having one. With that knowledge, we may be able to prevent the stroke from happening and save lives. I will work on my project for 6 months and I am excited to see the result!

Jonatan Baggman
Hi! My name is Jonatan and I’m doing my master thesis here at ISB group this spring. For my master thesis I’m looking into imputations for the Digital Twin, how to estimate the input values which are not measured directly from the patient. I will look into different methods of imputation and will compare these. Hopefully, I will be able to present how to make the Digital Twin personalized without measuring all values from the patient!

Elin has received two substantial grants, from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and from the Center for Industrial Information Technology (CENIIT). Both grants are given to young and promising researchers.

VR-NT From omics to patient specific simulations (950 000 SEK per year for 4 years)
CENIIT Executable models for drug development (450 000 SEK per year for up to 6 years)

Today, Therese Alenvret presented here master thesis on how health information from the clinic and/or different mobile devices can be retrieved and modeled to be used by our digital twin. So now we now more about the posibilities and challanges with accessing personal data to the digital twin. Good job Therese!

With the summer long gone, and a new term in full swing, it is time for a very late and past-due update post! The autumn of 2019 was hectic, exciting and rewarding! The year started off with the addition of three new group members, two PhDs and a post-doc (more about this further down). We also started our to date most collaborative effort, which was to connect (almost) all of our existing models. The first phase of this project culminated in a fully packed event at the Almedalen week in the beginning of the summer, but more about this in a later blog post.

The group has grown. We have had several new (but old) additions. Both me (Christian Simonsson) and Nicolas Sundqvist, both previous master-thesis students in systems biology, started PhD-positions in the group. Here’s a short update from us. I’m finishing up my projects concerning the metabolic syndrome and I have just started new projects concerning disease progression in the liver (ASH/NASH).  Adding to this, I will spend half of my PhD working at the Division of Radiological Sciences (RAD) in the group of Peter Lundberg, doing clinical research. Right now, I am analyzing MRE data for patients with suspected liver fibrosis. Nicolas is continuing his work with metabolic flux modelling, but he has also branched out, and is now doing modelling of fMRI data and brain metabolism in the group of Maria Engstrom. Also, Belen Casas is doing her post-doc in our group. Her post-doc project concerns mechanistic modeling of MPS-systems.

Three talented internship-students have just ended their one year stay with us. Kajsa Tunedal has worked with several projects, including modelling of NEFA circulation and uptake in the liver, and modelling of cortisol levels in relation to stress. Henrik Podéus has worked with connecting several models describing the different aspects of the neurovascular coupling in collaboration with Sebastian Sten (PhD in Maria Engstroms group). Anton Tornerefelt has with collaborators from Örebro’s University created a model of Macrophages activation. You all have done great work and we wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors!

Here is two of our latest group photos! The latter is from our latest group retreat, which took place at the beautiful Omberg eco-park.

Two exciting days of biomedical engineering just ended after our division hosted the annual MTD conference. The purpose of MTD is to be the most important meeting place for medical technology in Sweden. Where all key stakeholders; researchers, company representatives and medical experts can meet and discuss important questions. Our presence was at the digitalization of healthcare track where our PI, Gunnar, held the opening talk. He presented our group vision of personalized medicine: digital twins – physiologically based, personalized, simulation models to be used in healthcare. Also, Elin and Tilda each had poster presentations representing modelling research. All in all, two good days where we could showcase our research vision to the Swedish biomedical community.