The ISBGroup Blog

Tomorrow, May 21, 2024, we are arranging a new edition of the BME@LIU-day. BME stands for biomedical engineering, i.e. the interplay between biomedicine (from basic science to clinical practice) and engineering. In practice, BME, entails fields such as modelling and AI, digital twins, wearable sensors, new biomaterials, eHealth, bioinformatics, imaging, bio-optics, etc etc. BME is therefore also one of the core areas of LIU, and it is – in fact – one of the reasons why Linköping university (LIU) was founded, in 1975: to create a bridge between the needs for new engineers at SAAB, and the need for new biomedical research and personnel at the hospital. Around this need, LIU was founded, and at the heart of this dream of a bridge between these two worlds was the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT).

IMT eventually attracted Gunnar Cedersund, who started there gradually from around 2011, and then gradually moved his research group over to this department. IMT has since then also expanded its mission to support biomedical engineering beyond its own department, i.e. at the university level. And the arrangement of this BME@LIU-day is a central part of this new broader mission.

In practice, the day will feature a lot of activities at LiU, and also a lot of our own activities. For instance: at 10-10.30, postdoc William Lövfors and MD/Ph.D. student Valentin Kindesjö will introduce the latest developments of our digital twins, using a so-called double presentation where a clinician and an engineer each presents from their specific perspective. In the same session on modelling and AI, at 10.50-11.10, we also see presentations by our newly transitioned postdoc Nicolas Sundqvist, who will present a new story, where we quantify the importance of different cell types for the neurovascular coupling. Finally, also in that session, at 11.20-11.40, we have one of our newest postdocs, Dirk de Weerd, who presents a work he has done together with our incoming postdoc Rasmus Magnusson, on the usage of Variational AutoEncoders, to identify a compressed space for gene expression variations, and apply this to disease modelling. A final oral presentation, not by us, but by one of our closest collaborators, is that 10.50-11.10 by Jesper Fellenius, who will present his perspectives from 20 years of app developments for commercial companies (Ericsson, Swedbank etc) and his 75 MSEK development of a personal data vault. Link to the modelling presentation is here and link to Jesper’s session is here.

Finally, apart from oral presentations, we will also be featured in various places in the poster session combined with the arena. There will be 6 student-based posters, who present 6 large B.Sc. projects, on various modelling tasks within the digital twin development: i) on blood pressure and exercise, ii) on exercise and VO2max, iii) on dysfunctional fat storage in large adipocytes and liver fat, iv) on the neurovascular coupling, v) on drugs and cognitive function, and vi) on alcohol metabolism. Apart from that, there will be many other research-based posters from our group. Finally, we will also – for the first time – be featured not only by our original spin-off company SUND sound medical decisions, but by the newly created daughter company with Z2 and Johan Holmsäter – with the working title Lev Skönare.

All these companies and research projects will be featured with oral presentations, posters, or exhibitions, where you also can test to create your own digital twin, if you want.

Welcome!

Gunnar Cedersund, chair of the program committee

Our work “A physiologically-based digital twin for alcohol consumption—predicting real-life drinking responses and long-term plasma PEth“, has now been published in npj Digital Medicine.

In this manuscript we establish a mathematical model describing short-term alcohol dynamics, with or without simultaneously eating. We then go on to use this short-term model to make predictions about the appearance of the long-term alcohol marker Phosphatidylethanol (PEth). PEth has shown promise in monitoring alcohol consumption and by utilizing modelling the predictive ability of one’s drinking habits could be improved. Further, these predictive capabilities could make PEth-testing feasible in cases of liver diseases, such as MASLD.

You can read the article at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-024-01089-6

Welcome to Gustav Magnusson’s halftime seminar about Cerebrovascular Reactivity

The session will start with presentations from the opponents, followed by the halftime seminar and subsequent discussions.

The event will take place at Wrannesalen, Linköping University, or you can join online via the following link: https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/4294571948

For me information see below:

A central part of our digital twins, which underlies all apps in the STRATIF-AI project, are the models we have for the brain. So far these models have mostly focused on the neurovascular coupling (NVC). i.e. on the vascular response to neuronal activity. In our latest Ph.D. thesis “Mathematical Modelling of Cerebral Metabolism: From Ion Channels to Metabolic Fluxes”, which was defended by Dr Nicolas Sundqvist last Friday, we have taken these models to a higher level: to also include more detailed cerebral metabolism.

In the first paper, we use MRS data from humans to develop a small model for central metabolism, which is linked to our NVC models. In the second paper, we focus on cell-specific contributions, and show that inter-neurons might be the most dominant cell type in the NVC response; this puts much of the existing fMRI data into question. In the third paper, we present a detailed model for the most metabolically expensive process in neurons: the ion channels. Finally, in the fourth paper, we have developed a method for how to develop even more detailed intracellular flux models, using 13C-labelled media and a new approach to validation of intracellular flux models. 

Opponent was Dr João Duarte from Lund, and the examination committee consisted of Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski (KTH), Arvind Kumar (KTH), and Katarina Nöh (Jülich Forschungscentrum).

Congratulations PhD Nicolas Sundqvist!

During Feb 14 and 15, 2024, we at ISBgroup at Linköping University (LIU) had a few visitors, who joined us for an interactive 2-day workshop on UX-design for our stroke Prevention App development. The Prevention app is developed jointly between Linköping University (LiU) and Z2, as part of the STRATIF-AI Horizon-Europe project (stratif-ai.eu), and it is meant for both primary and secondary stroke prevention. Primary prevention will be done in Region Västerbotten and Region Östergötland, and it involves a so-called Health Dialogue. A Health Dialogue is preceded by measurements of traditional risk factors (blood pressure, blood lipids, fasting glucose, etc), which are discussed together with e.g. a specialized nurse or a physiotherapist. Our app will use digital twins to help explain why a person should care about these risk factors, and how they can change their lifestyle (e.g. exercise more, eat less, take certain medications, etc), to improve the risk factors. Based on this information, the patient then sets some goals, to improve their lifestyle, to reduce one or several of the risk factors. These goals are then worked further on together with a coach and dedicated support-group. Also this subsequent coaching-period will be supported by the app, which thus provides a bridge between traditional healthcare actors, and those not normally integrated in healthcare: coaches, personal trainers, support groups. etc.

During the 2 days workshop, we did various role playing exercises, whiteboard and post-it note sketches, which then will be converted to Figma implementations, which then lead to new user tests, etc. From Z2, we have Jesper Fellenius, who has developed the backend for the personal data vault, where the data are stored, and who also has developed a prior prototype for a similar app, which we re-use. From LIU, we have Dr Gunnar Cedersund, Dr Dirk de Weerd, and M.Sc. student Greta Nilsson, who work with the app development. From Region Östergötland (RÖ), we have MD student Johanna Levander and MD specialist Valentin Kindesjö, who represent clinical needs. Apart from these, we also have Johan Holmsäter and Mats Janson, who represent Lev Skönare and coaching and wellbeing partners, who also are connected to STRATIF-AI.