Guide for Creating a Digital Persona: A Comprehensive Approach to Building a Virtual Human
The Science Museum in London is set to open its Medicine Galleries in 2019, featuring cutting-edge advancements in medical technology. Among these innovations is the virtual human, a digital representation of a human body that could revolutionise the field of medicine.
The CompBioMed consortium, led by University College London, is at the forefront of global efforts to create this virtual human. This initiative contributes to building a virtual human by developing advanced computational modeling and simulation tools focused on cardiovascular and biomedical applications.
The virtual human could be used as a test subject for treatments, similar to a crash test dummy, guinea pig, and trial volunteer combined. It can exhibit physical responses such as breathing, blistering, and bleeding, and its virtual hearts can be stimulated to study electrical signals and look for arrhythmias.
Prof Marco Viceconti (Sheffield University) and Prof Blanca Rodriguez (Oxford University) are key figures in the Virtual Physiological Human initiative, with Prof Rodriguez focusing on virtual hearts. Prof Alfons Hoekstra (University of Amsterdam) will speak about virtual blood vessels and other related topics.
The upcoming September Lates event on 27 September will explore the creation of a virtual human. The event, in partnership with the €5 million CompBioMed initiative, will take place in the IMAX Theatre from 19.30-20.30. Tickets for the event are free and available online.
During the event, Prof Peter Coveney (UCL) will discuss simulating how drugs work in the body, including treatments for cancer and Aids. The audience will have the opportunity to interact with scientists from the CompBioMed consortium.
In addition to the virtual human, the Science Museum's Medicine Galleries will also house a 3D printed kidney for organ transplant planning.
These advancements in virtual human technology are made possible by integrating multi-disciplinary expertise in mathematics, computer science, and biomedical engineering to simulate interactions across scales and biological systems. This enables the creation of individualised virtual human models for predicting disease progression, drug response, and treatment outcomes.
Enhancing collaborative research infrastructure allows for the sharing and validation of virtual human models internationally, furthering the development of this groundbreaking technology. For those interested in learning more about CompBioMed's specifics or recent publications, dedicated scientific articles or the initiative’s official communications are recommended.
Science Museum Lates is an event for adults aged 18 and over, running from 18.45-22.00, with free admission but some events requiring tickets. Medical simulations are conducted using supercomputers like ARCHER (UK national supercomputer) and SuperMUC (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, Germany). Initiatives like CompBioMed aim to enable doctors to create customised virtual models of patients for better diagnosis and treatment, even allowing for the planning of delicate surgeries such as heart valve repairs or brain surgery.
Join us at the Science Museum on 27 September to witness the future of medicine unfold before your eyes. The virtual human is here, and it's only the beginning.
The virtual human initiative, led by the CompBioMed consortium, is a collaboration between experts in mathematics, computer science, and biomedical engineering, working to create individualised digital human models that could revolutionise medicine. At the upcoming September Lates event at the Science Museum, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the development of virtual human technology, including discussions on simulating drug responses, treatments for cancer and AIDS, and the use of 3D printed organs for transplant planning.
