The Cardiac Physiome: Multi-scale and Multi-physics Mathematical Modelling Applied to the Heart

20 - 24 July 2009

Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK

Organisers: Dr RH Clayton (Sheffield), Professor P Hunter (Auckland), Professor N Smith (Oxford) and Dr S Waters (Oxford).

in association with the Newton Institute programme The Cardiac Physiome Project (29 June to 24 July 2009)

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Conference theme and scientific programme:

Engineering and mathematical approaches coupled to physiology are not only advancing our understanding of cardiac function, but are on the threshold of clinical application for diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Coupled with a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of experimental data, these modelling developments now provide the potential for analyzing complex cause and effect relationships, and for improved mechanistic understanding in a range of physiological systems.

The scientific programme of this conference will focus on the combination of experimental and modelling research required for developing integrated multi-scale and multi-physics cardiac models. The program will be built around providing opportunities for (1) keynote presentations to propose issues and stimulate discussion; (2) opportunities for early career researchers to present their work and develop cross-disciplinary collaborations; and (3) focused group discussions on facilitating Physiome style research which exploits the full potential of a combined modelling and experimental approach. Throughout the week we will promote common themes and questions relevant to the contribution of mathematical and computational science to the cardiac Physiome endeavor as whole, specifically:

CPPheart

How can model parameters be unambiguously linked to specific and consistent experimental data sets?
What is important for iterative testing and development of models, and what is needed to enable experimentally based researchers to use and directly interact with models?
How can we apply techniques and frameworks demonstrated in the heart to other physiological systems e.g. pancreas, lung, kidney, immune system?
How can model databases and ontologies support robust model testing and accelerate the iterative refinement within the research community?
How well can quantitative animal models be mapped across species to deduce clinical inference for human health?

Presentations and abstract submission:

Keynote speakers include Nicholas Ayache (INRIA), Alan Garfinkel (UC, Los Angeles), Peter Hunter (Auckland), Andrew McCulloch (UC, San Diego), Denis Noble (Oxford), Sasha Popel (Johns Hopkins), Reza Rezavi (King's College London), Natalia Trayanova (Johns Hopkins) and Richard Vaughan-Jones (Oxford).

While a number of conference participants have been invited we also welcome applications from interested researchers, to attend and present their work.

We anticipate sessions to cover the following topics:

Multiple physiological scales: Sub-cellular, cellular, cell to cell communication, tissue structure and properties, whole heart structure and function, and human translation.
Multiple physics: Calcium and pH regulation, electrical excitation, mechanical contraction, electromechanical coupling, coronary blood flow and ventricular fluid dynamics.
Tools and infrastructure: Simulation, visualisation and databasing tools, image based modelling tools and other infrastructure needed for integrative work by the community as a whole.

We invite contributions in these areas for presentation as talks (12 minutes with 3 minutes for discussion), or as posters. The deadline for abstract submission is 13 March 2009.