Here you can read about everything that's happening in the ISB Group.
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.
You can read more about it HERE
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.
Welcome to MBM 2023!
We are pleased to invite you to our fourth Workshop on Modelling in Biology and Medicine (MBM 2023) on the 15-17th of May. We aim to gather all young researchers in Sweden working on modelling of biological systems. Our ambition is to give all participating PhD students and Postdocs the opportunity to present their work through an oral presentation or a poster. Further, we wish to provide an insight into how modelling in biology and medicine is practiced in academia and industry.
The workshop will be held in both plenary presentation sessions for larger talks as well as in smaller sessions for e.g. poster presentations. You can participate at MBM 2023 by
The workshop will be in-person at Linköping University, Campus US.
When: 15-17th of May 2023
Where: Linköping
Why: Bringing together young researchers in Sweden working on the border of mathematics, biology, and medicine
How: Oral presentation, poster, or as an observer
Abstract submission: https://forms.gle/jHNrg1QM6bGQhmx9A, deadline 14th of April
Register: Registration will open soon
More information: https://mbm.systemsbiology.se/
Our work “A quantitative model for human neurovascular coupling with translated mechanisms from animals”, previously available at bioRxiv, has now been published in PLOS Computational Biology. In this manuscript we explore if qualitative behaviors of the Neurovascular coupling (NVC), found in different species and data sets, can be applied to the model simulations of other data. Below follows a slightly more detailed summary of the manuscript.
The neurovascular coupling (NVC) is the basis for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), since the NVC connects neural activity with the observed hemodynamic changes. This connection is highly complex, which warrants a model-based analysis. However, even though NVC-data from several species and many relevant variables are available, a mathematical model for all these data is still missing. Herein, we combine experimental data from mice, monkeys, and humans, to develop a comprehensive model for NVC. Importantly, our new approach to modelling propagates the qualitative insights from each species to the subsequent analysis of data from other species. In mice, we unravel the role of different neuronal sub-populations when producing a biphasic response to prolonged sensory stimulations. The qualitative role of these sub-populations is preserved when analysing primate data. These primate data add knowledge on the interplay between local field potential (LFP) and vascular changes. Similarly, these pre-clinical qualitative insights are propagated to analysis of human data, which contain additional insights regarding blood flow and volume in arterioles and venules, during both positive and negative responses. This work illustrates how data with complementary information from different species can be combined, so that qualitative insights from animals are preserved in the quantitative analysis of human data.
You can read the full article HERE
We are pleased to announce that our manuscript entitled “Mechanistic model for human brain metabolism and its connection to the neurovascular coupling” have recently been accepted for publication in PLoS Computational Biology. In this manuscript we present a mechanistic model for the human cerebral metabolism based on magnetic resonance spectroscopy data. We have also connected this model to our previously published model for the neurovascular coupling. Below follows a slightly more detailed summary of the manuscript.
The neurovascular and neurometabolic couplings are highly central for several clinical imaging techniques since these frequently use blood oxygenation (the BOLD signal) as a proxy for neuronal activity. This relationship is described by the highly complex neurovascular and neurometabolic couplings, which describe the balancing between increased metabolic demand and blood flow, and which involve several cell types and regulatory systems, which all change dynamically over time. While there are previous works that describe the neurovascular coupling in detail, neither we nor others have developed connections to corresponding mechanistic models for the third aspect, the metabolic aspect. Furthermore, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data for such modelling readily is available. In this paper we present a minimal mechanistic model that can describe the metabolic response to visual stimuli. The model is trained to describe experimental data for the relative change in metabolic concentrations of several metabolites in the visual cortex during stimulation. The model is also validated against independent validation data, that was not used for model training. Finally, we also connect this metabolic model to a detailed mechanistic model of the neurovascular coupling. Showing that the model can describe both the metabolic response and a neurovascular response simultaneously.
You can find the article HERE!
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
Dont miss the chance to meet us at The Virtual Physiologiacl Human Conference 2022!
We have three presentations and our digital twin will be a part of the welcome reception
Dancing Digital Twins performance
Welcome reception, 7th September, 19:30 Auditorium
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
Nicolas Sundqvist
Presentation, 8th September
Session 14: Multiscale modelling. 8.30-10.30, Room 2
An interconnected multi-level mechanistic model of the human brain
Oscar Arrestam
Presentation, 9th September
Session 22: Computational modeling in health and disease 4. 8.45-10.15 Room 2
Digital twin predicting diet response before and after long-term fasting (see poster below)
Gunnar Cedersund
Presentation, 9th September
Session 25: Computational tools and simulation in biomechanics 4
10.30-12.30 Auditorium
M4-health: digital twins that follow you throughout your health journey
