VPH NoE

The Virtual Physiological Human Network of Excellence (VPH NoE)) project is funded by the European Commission under the FP7 Objective ICT – 2007.5.3: Virtual Physiological Human (VPH). The European Commission allocated 72 Million to Virtual Physiological Human projects under ‘Framework 7, Call 2 of the Information and Communication Technologies Programme in October 2007 .

The Virtual Physiological Human Network of Excellence (VPH NoE) was launched in June 2008 and runs until May 2012. The stated aim of the project is to help connect the diverse VPH projects, from those funded by the 7th Framework Programme as VPH initiative Projects(VPH-I) to encompass related projects funded under previous EC frameworks and national funding schemes, industry, healthcare providers and international organisations. The 7th Framework Programme consists of projects which seek solutions to key issues of the Physiome . The Physiome is described as 'an umbrella term that refers to human modelling with mathematics and computational methods, accommodating cross-disciplinary science (chemistry, biology, physics) and a breadth of dimensional and temporal scale (sub-cellular to organs, sub-microsecond to tens-of-years' .

The interconnection of different disciplines is one of the aims of the VPH NoE and of the VPH Initiative as a whole. Modellers and engineers may not be aware of the clinical implications of their work and clinicians may not have any prior knowledge of engineering. The development of tools, standards and ontologies is another one of the declared aims of the VPH Initiative and software tools are needed for authoring, visualizing, and operating models based on widely adopted modelling standards . The VPH NoE also has a stated aim 'to provide the necessary infrastructure including computational methodologies, tools and databases that will enable academic, clinical and industrial researchers to communicate, and to exchange data and technologies in a standardised way'.

History of VPH NoE

The VPH forms a core target of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, and aims to support the development of patient-specific computer models and their application in personalised and predictive healthcare . The VPH Initiative constitutes an integral part of the international Physiome Project . The Physiome Project is a worldwide public domain effort to develop the computational framework for quantitative description of biological processes in living systems across all relevant levels of structural and functional integration, from molecule to organism, including the human. There are many different physiome and VPH projects being pursued across the world.

The VPH NoE is a follow on from the STEP project which was a European Coordination Action and was funded to recommend effective strategies that promote the development of the VPH ‘Seeding the EuroPhysiome: a roadmap to the virtual physiological human’ .

STEP formally commenced in January 2006 and concluded in March 2007 and played a leading part in developing worldwide links so that data and software can be shared freely across the international community. It is a fundamental precept of EuroPhysiome that its work should be as compatible and convergent as possible with similar work that is taking place in other parts of the world. Since the conclusion of the STEP project in 2007, this 'mantle' has now been passed on to the VPH NoE .

VPH – Initiative projects

The European Commission has, to date, allocated over 72 million euros to projects funded under the Objective ICT – 2007.5.3: Virtual Physiological Human. The main target outcome of this objective is: patient-specific computer models for personalised and predictive healthcare and ICT – based tools for modelling and simulation of human physiology. Collaborative projects within this call will meet specific research objectives related to computational modelling of human physiology. VPH-I projects range from those developing advanced computational models of the heart, predictive models for dementia, osteoporosis and [...] safety, through to projects furthering a common health information infrastructure to facilitate easier access to European supercomputing power. The VPH NoE was set up to lead the coordination of diverse activities within the VPH-I, with the hope that this will deliver:

   *integration of basic research findings across organ systems and levels of investigation 
   *acceleration of device and [...] intervention 
   *development through predictive in-silico modelling, 
   *improvement of efficacy and safety and the creation of 
   *new environments for predictive, personalised evidenced based healthcare  

The VPH initiative targets the level of the whole human body as the system of interest. The aim of the VPH initiative is to understand human physiology quantitatively and at all relevant levels between genes and the organism .

See also

• Physiome
• Physiology
• EuroPhysiome
• Cytome
• Human anatomy
• Living Human Project
• VPHOP (Osteoporotic Virtual Physiological Human)

Bibliography

• Clapworthy, G., Kohl, P., Gregerson, H., Thomas, S., Viceconti, M., Hose, D., Pinney, D., Fenner, J., McCormack, K., Lawford, P., Van Sint Jan, S., Waters, S., & Coveney, P. 2007, "Digital Human Modelling: A Global Vision and a European Perspective," In Digital Human Modelling: A Global Vision and a European Perspective , Berlin: Springer, pp. 549-558.

• Clapworthy, G., Viceconti, M., Coveney, P.V., & Kohl, P. 2008. The Virtual Physiological Human: building a framework for computational biomedicine I. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366, (1878) 2975-2978 available from: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1878/2975.short

• Fenner, J.W., Brook, B., Clapworthy, G., Coveney, P.V., Feipel, V., Gregersen, H., Hose, D.R., Kohl, P., Lawford, P., McCormack, K.M., Pinney, D., Thomas, S.R., Van Sint Jan, S., Waters, S., & Viceconti, M. 2008. The EuroPhysiome, STEP and a roadmap for the virtual physiological human. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366, (1878) 2979-2999 available from: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1878/2979.abstract
• Hunter, P.J. 2006. Modeling living systems: the IUPS/EMBS Physiome project. Proceedings IEEE, 94, 678-991

• Hunter, P.J. & Borg, T.K. 2003. Integration from proteins to organs: the Physiome project. Nature, 4, (237) 243

• Kohl, P. & Noble, D. (in press). Systems biology and the Virtual Physiological Human. Molecular Systems Biology

• Sadiq, S.K., Mazzeo, M.D., Zasada, S.J., Manos, S., Stoica, I., Gale, C.V., Watson, S.J., Kellam, P., Brew, S., & Coveney, P.V. 2008. Patient-specific simulation as a basis for clinical decision-making. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366, (1978) 3199-3219

• Viceconti, M., Clapworthy, G., & Van Sint Jan, S. 2008. The Virtual Physiological Human — A European Initiative for in silico Human Modelling. Journal of Physiological Sciences, 58, (7) 441-446

Links to External Resources

• VPH NoE The VPH NoE was launched in 2008 and aims to provide the necessary infrastructure including computational methodologies, tools and databases that will enable academic, clinical and industrial researchers to communicate, and to exchange data and technologies in a standardised way. The website has the latest news, events and progress of the VPH NoE, contains further information on the VPH I projects and is a useful resource to find out more about the VPH.

• EuroPhysiome The Europhysiome initiative was coordinated by the STEP Coordination action, which aimed to establish a better coordination between European Physiome projects. STEP is now completed; its primary results were the establishment of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) concept, and the production of a European research roadmap to the realisation of the VPH.

• STEP Roadmap STEP Consortium. Seeding the EuroPhysiome: A Roadmap to the Virtual Physiological Human. [Online] 5 July 2007,

• IUPS Physiome Project The Physiome Project is a worldwide public domain effort to provide a computational framework for understanding human and other eukaryotic physiology. It aims to develop integrative models at all levels of biological organisation, from genes to the whole organism via gene regulatory networks, protein pathways, integrative cell function, and tissue and whole organ structure/function relations. University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

• BioMed Town is an online resource, borne out of the Sixth Framework Programme Coordination Action STEP (A Strategy for the Europhysiome). It is a meeting place open to Biomedical Research & Technology, Biomedical Industry and Clinical Practice, and aims to support networking and information sharing - key activities underpinning any integrative/interdisciplinary research community. It is open to all those who have a professional or educational interest in biomedical research & technology.

• Operating on the Virtual Human BBC news feature on Heart Surgery as part of the VPH Initiative (January 2009)

External Links to VPH projects

EU FP7 VPH related Projects

The VPH Initiative (VPH-I) constitutes 15 projects funded within the EU call FP7-ICT-2007-2: Virtual Physiological Human. This initiative was preceded by a number of FP6 projects and other National and International projects/programmes. These include:

• euHeart (IP) Personalised and integrated cardiac care: Patient-specific cardiovascular modelling and simulation for in silico disease understanding and management and for medical device evaluation and optimisation. (Project dates: 06/08 - 05/12).
• VPHOP (IP) Osteoporotic Virtual Physiological Human. Multi scale modelling technology based on conventional diagnostic imaging methods that makes it possible to predict for each patient the strength of their bones and how this strength will change over time. (Project dates: 08/08 - 08/12).
• ARTreat (IP) Multi-level patient-specific artery and atherogenesis model for outcome prediction, decision support treatment, and virtual hand-on training. (Project dates: 09/08 - 08/11).
• preDiCT (STREP) Virtual research environment for in silico assessment of efficacy and safety of specific drugs (cell to ventricle-level models) and faster than-real-time simulation. (Project dates: 06/08 - 05/11).
• ContraCancrum (STREP) Clinically oriented translational cancer multilevel modelling. Composite multilevel platform for simulating malignant tumour development and tumour and normal tissue response to therapeutic modalities and treatment schedules. (Project dates: 08/08 - 07/11).
• ARCH (STREP) Patient specific image-based computational modelling for improvement of short- and long-term outcome of vascular access in patient on hemodialysis therapy. (Project dates: 06/08 - 05/11).
• PASSPORT (STREP) Patient specific simulation and preoperative realistic training for liver surgery. Patient specific liver modelling combinging anatomical, mechanical, appearance and biological preoperative modelled information. (Project dates: 06/08 - 05/11).
• [www.predictad.eu PredictAD] (STREP) From patient data to personalised healthcare in Alzheimer's Disease. New biomarkers and clinically useful tools for early Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. (Project dates: 06/08 - 05/11).
• NeoMARK (STREP) ICT enabled prediction of cancer reoccurrence. Multiscale and multilevel modelling, aimed at advancing models and methods currently in use to predict neoplastic reoccurences, and to apply it to the study of oral cancer. (Project dates: 06/08 - 08/10).
• VPH2 (STREP) Virtual pathological heart of the virtual physiological human. Patient-specific computational modelling and simulation of the human heart to assist the cardiologist and cardiac surgeon in defining the severity and extent of disease in patients with post-ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction (LVD), with or without ischemic mitral regurgitation. (Project dates: 07/08 - 06/11).
• IMPPACT (STREP) Image-based multi-scale physiological planning for ablation cancer treatment. Physiological model of the liver and simulation of result of Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) of malignant liver tumours, accounting for patient specific physiological factors. (Project dates: 08/08 - 08/11).
• HAMAM (STREP) Highly accurate breast cancer diagnosis through integration of biological knowledge, novel imaging modalities, and modelling. (Project dates: 08/08 - 08/11).
• Action-Grid (CA) International cooperative action on grid computing and biomedical informatics between the European Union, Latin America, the Western Balkans and North Africa. (Project dates: 08/08 - 11/11).
• RADICAL (CA) Road mapping technology for enhancing security to protect medical and genetic data. In depth study to determine policy roadmap for security and privacy enhancement in Virtual Physiological Human. (Project dates: 00/00 - 00/00).

EU FP6 VPH related Projects

• @neurIST (IP) @neurIST will develop an IT infrastructure for the management of heterogeneous data associated with the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral aneurysms. (Project dates: 02/06 - 01/10).
• ACGT (IP) Advancing Clinico-genomic trials on cancer: Open Grid services for improving medical knowledge discovery The ACGT project aims to develop a GRID platform to support and stimulate further exchanges of both clinic and genetic information, with a particular focus on breast cancer treatment. (Project dates: 02/06 - 01/10).
• Health-e-Child (IP) The Health-e-Child project aims at developing an integrated healthcare platform for European paediatrics, providing seamless integration of traditional and emerging sources of biomedical information. (Project dates: 01/06 - 12/09).
• I KNOW (STREP) I-Know is a knowledge discovery IT -based tool designed to aid early stroke diagnosis, stroke treatment, [...] development and identification of risk factors as targets in disease prevention for the benefit of European industry and citizens. (Project dates: 05/06 - 04/09).
• Sealife (NoE) A Semantic Grid Browser for the Life Sciences applied to the study of Infectious Diseases. The development of a browser, which will link the existing Web to the currently emerging eScience infrastructure. (Project dates: 04/06 - 03/09).
• VIROLAB (STREP) ViroLab enables easy access to distributed resources as well as the sharing, processing, and analysis of virological, immunological, clinical and experimental data. (Project dates: 03/06 - 03/09).
• ImmunoGrid (STREP) The project will focus on establishing an infrastructure for the simulation of the immune system that integrates processes at molecular, cellular, and organ levels.It will be designed for applications that support clinical outcomes. (Project dates: 02/06 - 01/09).
• LHDL (STREP) Living Human Digital Library: interactive digital library services to access collections of complex biomedical data on the musculoskeletal apparatus. (Project dates: 02/06 - 01/09).
• Simap (STREP) Simulation modelling of the MAP kinase pathway SIMAP will develop a simulation model of the cancer related MAP-kinase pathway, integrating and analyzing data from various types of resources, which may assist in the development of better cancer treatment. (Project dates: 01/06 - 12/08)
• ASSIST (STREP) Association studies assisted by inference and semantic technologies. The main objective of ASSIST is to facilitate the research for cervical cancer through a system that will virtually unify multiple patient record repositories, physically located in different medical centres/hospitals. (Project dates: 01/06 - 12/08).
• STEP (CA) STEP was a Coordination Action that sought to coordinate European activity relating to the physiome – a description of human physiology that will span multiple levels from the whole body down through the organs to the cells and beneath in an integrated manner. (Project dates: 01/06 - 03/07).
• BIOPATTERN (NoE) Computational intelligence for Bio-pattern analysis in support of eHealthcare. The goal of BIOPATTERN is to develop a pan-European, coherent and intelligent analysis of a citizen's bio-profile. (Project dates: 01/04 - 12/07).
• MATCH (STREP) MATCH project entitle the development of an automatic diagnosis system that aims to support treatment of colon cancer diseases by discovering mutations that occurs to tumour suppressor genes (TSGs) and contributes to the development of cancerous tumours. (Project dates: 08/06 - 07/08).
• MULTI - KNOWLEDGE (STREP)The MULTI-KNOWLEDGE Project aims to integrate different biomedical information from heterogeneous sources (clinical, laboratory and metabolic) with data on gene and protein expression provided by new high throughput technologies in a system committed to cardiovascular risk profiling. (Project dates: 01/06 - 03/08).
• NEUROWEB (STREP) NEUROWEB project improved healthcare delivery achieving knowledge-based, personalised diagnosis and therapy through vertical integration of existing clinical and genetic databases. (Project dates: 08/06 - 07/08).
• e-Health ERA(CA) The overall goal of the eHealth ERA project is to contribute to greater transparency of national eHealth strategies and implementation activities as well as innovation oriented research and technology development (RTD) initiatives. (Project dates: 04/05 - 06/07).
• SemanticHEALTH (CSA) SemanticHEALTH aims to develop a European and global roadmap for deployment and research in health-ICT, focusing on semantic interoperability issues of e-Health systems and infrastructures. (Project dates: 01/06 - 12/07).
• SemanticMining (NoE) Semantic Interoperability and Data Mining in Biomedicine. The aim of this project is to establish Europe as the international scientific leader in medical and biomedical informatics. The long-term goal was to develop generic methods and tools to support the critical tasks of the field. (Project dates: 01/04 - 07/07).
• SYMBIOmatics (SSA) SYMBIOmatics is a Specific Support Action that aims to identify and exploit synergies between bioinformatics and medical informatics.The project will document the state-of-the art in biomedical informatics in Europe. (Project dates: 05/05 - 11/06).
• INFOBIOMED (NoE) INFOBIOMED aims at enforcing European Biomedical Informatics as an integrative discipline with a view on supporting individualised healthcare. (Project dates: 01/04 - 06/07).
• TACIT(STREP) Technologies Augmenting Clinical InsighT. The TACIT project aim is to unlock the tacit knowledge of Europe's senior clinicians both by linguistically analysed multimedia recording and by expert location and communications. (Project dates: 06/04 - 08/06).
• WoundMonitor (STREP) WOUNDMONITOR will apply gas sensor array technology in an innovative diagnostic system that will enable non-invasive sampling of volatiles, helping diagnosis of the onset and type of bacterial infections in critically ill patients suffering from burns or serious wounds. (Project dates: 01/06 - 12/08).
• SHARE (SSA) The goal of SHARE was to ensure the successful take up of HealthGrids in the next 10 years by creating a roadmap for essential technology development years. (Project dates: 01/06 - 03/08).
• EuResist (STREP) The EuResist project aims to develop a European integrated system for the clinical management of antiretroviral [...] resistance. (Project dates: 01/06 - 06/08).
• normaCORThe aim of normaCOR is to provide novel insight into novel arrhythmogenic mechanisms, quantify their interrelation, target preventive and therapeutic interventions to reduce the societal and economical impact of cardiac arrhythmia.