Our EU project STRATIF-AI (https://stratif-ai.eu/en), in which we develop digital twins for prevention, acute treatment and rehabilitation of stroke, was presented as part of “Clinical applications of computer modeling” at Latin American Summer School for Computational Neuroscience (LASCON) in Sao Paulo Brazil Jan 2024.
Figure shows how modern medicine has been changing and indicates role of modeling in modern (future) clinical practice — part of personalized medicine, data-mining, self-monitoring, omics, surgical planning, medical education, research, screening, etc
This year, we got a double jackpot from the Swedish Research Council – who gave us glowing reviews for the 3R project, scaling from microphysiological in vitro systems to humans using scalable digital twins.
In Sweden, the Swedish Research Council (Swe: Vetenskapsrådet, VR), is the most central research grant, and it is often considered a key quality stamp of a top researcher to have at least one grant from VR. Therefore, competition is usually fierce (acceptance rate usually is 5-15%), and it is not at all guaranteed that you get money, even if you have a competitive application. Therefore, I am proud to say that this year, I got not only one grant, but two – and that the evaluation from the reviewers was unusually high and glowing.
The project I have gotten the review responses for so far is a special call on 3R, i.e. Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experiments. This is a topic, I have been very active in ever since 2015, when I was awarded the first edition of the prize “Nytänkaren” (the thinker of new ideas), by the Swedish Fund for Research without Animal Experiments. The project extends on our experimental work, both within the group, doing cell biology cultures using 13C-labelled metabolites on liver and adipose tissue taken from surgery), and that in collaboration with AstraZeneca, centered around organs-on-a-chip, i.e. small microphysiological systems (MPS), with organoids and spheroids consisting of human cells (Fig A, recent paper). In the project, we will i) analyse these in vitro data using mechanistic modelling to get more information out of the data (e.g. metabolic fluxes), ii) plan new experiments, by first doing the experiments in the computer, and iii) translate the results to humans, by e.g. scaling the volumes of the spheroids to human sizes, and by adding the missing organs, which allows us to re-assemble the digital twin in the computer (Fig B-C, Step 1 and 2). The project will evaluate and quantify the benefits of this for e.g. drug development, and we will disseminate the results to pharma, scientists, and regulatory agencies (Fig C, Step 3).
In the evaluation, we only got 6s and 7s, which means that we were among the highest rated of all applicants, even among the few who got money (6 out of 56). The ranking is from 1-7, where a “normal, decent” scientist usually get a 3 (meaning “good”), and where you need at least a mixture of 5s and 6s to have any chance of getting money. If you get all 6s, you are usually getting the money for sure, and 7 is only very rarely given out (I was a reviewer for ~60 applicants two years ago, and then I think only one or possibly two got a 7 on any criterion). Therefore, I am very grateful that this year, I got only 6s and higher, and that two(!) categories got a 7: “merits of applicant” and “relevance for 3R” (Fig D). If the rating levels were the same as when I was a reviewer, I would – I think – have been number one of all applicants that year, and in any case, I must have been among the very top of all the 56 applicants also this year.
The life of a scientist is filled with many many rejected applications, so when you get a jackpot once in a while, it is important to stop a bit – and celebrate! Because tomorrow, it is time to get started working on the new exciting research projects! 🙂
CompBioMed Conference 2023 (CBMC23) will address all aspects of computational biomedicine, from genome through organ to whole human and population levels, embracing data driven, mechanistic modelling and simulation, machine learning and combinations thereof. This year Gunnar will is one of the Plenary Speakers and he will discuss physiologically based digital twins: a digital and interactive copy of yourself that follows you throughout your health journey.
Join the VPH (Virtual Physiologocal Human) summer school in Barcelona, June 5-9, 2023. This summer school includes 15 morning lectures, one honorary VPH lecture, and a lot of networking opportunities. Gunnar will talk about about the digital twins, so don’t miss it!
Last day to register is 21 of May, and you find more information HERE
M4-health and digital twins: bring a digital copy of yourself with you throughout your health journey
Keynote Lecture, Wednesday June 7th, 2023, 09:30-11:00
Abstract: For the last 20 years, Cedersund has developed mechanistic mathematical models for all of the main organs in the human body: heart, liver, fat, brain, etc. Lately, these models have combined into an interconnected model for the body as a whole. This interconnected model can be made specifically for each individual, and is then called a digital twin. This digital twin technology employs a hybrid approach, which combines the mechanistic simulation models with machine learning and bioinformatics models. This allows a patient, doctor, or other end-user to look inside the body of a patient, as it is now, ranging from the whole-body to the intracellular level. This also allows for simulations of different future scenarios, ranging from ms to years, and can simulate e.g. the risk of a stroke, depending on choice of diets, exercise, and certain medications. The models are thus of an M4-nature: multi-level, multi-timescale, mechanistic, and multi-organ. The focus on this talk will be on how we systematically test mechanistically hypothesis on the intracellular and organ levels, using mechanistic modelling, optimization, and predictions with uncertainty – followed by corresponding model-designed experiments. I will also to some extent go through how we assemble the different organ sub-models together into the integrated digital twin, which in itself is a modelling problem, and how we then put all of this into a series of different eHealth apps.
Biosketche: Gunnar Cedersund (https://liu.se/en/employee/gunce57) heads a cross-disciplinary research group at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT) at Linköping University. The heart of this group (15+ people) does hybrid mathematical modelling, combining machine learning with mechanistic small- and large-scale models. These models are developed using both pre-clinical and experimental data of various types, which are collected both by experimentalists and clininicians within the same group, and by numerous collaborators. These models are made available for preventive and patient-centric care, as well as for drug development and medical pedagogics, using innovative eHealth technologies. This is made possible, e.g., via the fact that Cedersund heads the 6MEuro EU project STRATIF-AI, which brings his digital twins into healthcare for all phases of stroke (prevention, acute treatment, and rehabilitation), using a series of different apps, which all are connected to the same backend.
LiU Scene for AI arrange lectures and events with a focus on AI. This time the event will focus on AI in Medical research and healthcare. For a whole afternoon you will be able to listen to presentations that will show LiU:s world leading strengths in this exciting field, including Gunnars presentation: M4-health and digital twins: a foundation for general AI in healthcare.
The event is open for academia, industry and the general public, and can also be watched online afterwards. The number of seats is limited so don’t forget to register in the link below.
Where? Wrannesalen, CMIV, Campus US, Linköping (North entrence, entrence 7) When? Tuesday 8/11, 14.00 – 16.30 CET
14.00-14.20Introduction: Artificial intelligence in medicine – Clinical implementation with Håkan Gustafsson, Deputy director at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV)
14.25-14.45 AIDA – Analytic imaging diagnostic arena with Caroline Bivik Stadler, Principal Research Engineer at the Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences (HMV)
14.50-15.10 Enabling large medical datasets using federated learning and synthetic data with Anders Eklund, Senior Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT)
15.15-15.30 Pause
5.30-15.50 M4-health and digital twins: a foundation for general AI in healthcare with Gunnar Cedersund, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT)
15.55-16.15Deep learning for functional analysis of diseases with Mika Gustafsson, Professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)
16.20-16.30 Closing remarks with Anders Persson, Director at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV)
The opening ceremony of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) conference was something special, it featured a lecture-performance with our physiologically based dancing digital twins. The VPH Institute has now published a news letter were you can read more about the development of the digital twins for the past 20 years, and more about the future visions for using them within biomedical teaching and patient-centric care.
“Take your digital twin with you throughout your health journey: from dance performances to patient-centric, preventive healthcare” For link click HERE
The 21st International Conference on Systems Biology (ICSB 2022) was held in Berlin, Germany, these past few days. We had a great time there and had the opportunity to meet great people, take part in interesting discussions, and see some of Berlin. During the conference, we presented several posters and gave some talks (summarized below). We would like to extend our thanks to the ICSB committee for a well-organized conference. Until next time, from the ISB group.
The full program can be found here: https://www.icsb2022.berlin/, and down below is a summary of our contributions.
M4-health: digital twins that follow you throughout your health journey, Gunnar Cedersund
Authors: Gunnar Cedersund
An interconnected multi-level mechanistic model of the human brain, Nicolas Sundqvist
Authors: Nicolas Sundqvist, Henrik Podéus, Malin Ejneby Silverå, Sebastian Sten, Salvador Dura-Bernal, Soroush Safaei, Maria Engström and Gunnar Cedersund
Digital twins and hybrid modelling for simulation of physiological variables and stroke risk, Tilda Herrgårdh
Authors: Tilda Herrgårdh, Elizabeth Hunter, Kajsa Tunedal, John D. Kelleher and Gunnar Cedersund
Insights on hemodynamic changes in hypertension and T2D through non-invasive cardiovascular modeling, Kajsa Tunedal
Authors: Kajsa Tunedal, Carl-Johan Carlhäll, Federica Viola, Tino Ebbers and Gunnar Cedersund
Mathematical modeling of cytokine interplay in human monocytes during LPS stimulation, Niloofar Nikaein
Authors: Niloofar Nikaein, Kedeye Tuerxun, Daniel Eklund, Alexander Persson, Robert Kruse, Eva Särndahl, Eewa Nånberg, Antje Thonig, Gunnar Cedersund, Elin Nyman, Dirk Repsilber and On Behalf Of The X-Hide Consortium
Connecting the Neurovascular coupling and Electrophysiological signaling – a modeling approach, Henrik Podéus
Authors: Henrik Podéus, Gunnar Cedersund and Salvador Dura-Bernal
An in silico resection to estimate global and regional hepatobiliary function in patients undergoing hepatectomy, Christian Simonsson
Authors: Christian Simonsson, Wolf Claus Bartholomä, Anna Lindhoff Larsson, Markus Karlsson, Bengt Norén, Gunnar Cedersund, Nils Dahlström, Per Sandström and Peter Lundberg
A comprehensive mechanistic model of adipocyte signaling with layers of confidence, William Lövfors
Authors: William Lövfors, Cecilia Jönsson, Charlotta S. Olofsson, Gunnar Cedersund and Elin Nyman
Unique collaboration between the Swedish researcher and pianist Gunnar Cedersund and choreographer and dancer Julia Bengtsson fuses digital twin technology and visualization with dance and music
