The Katja Poković Research Fund 

Research Project Award 2023

We are proud to announce that the 2023 Katja Poković Research Project grant has been awarded to Dr. Bryn Lloyd for his project entitled "Development of a computational multiscale model of human male and female anatomy". The project kicked off on December 1st, 2023, and has a duration of 24 months.

Project Summary:

The IT’IS Foundation created and curates the Virtual Population (ViP), which consists of intricately detailed virtual human models designed for dosimetric and biomedical purposes. The latest generation of these models takes 3D anatomical computational simulations to an unparalleled level of precision, featuring over 1000 tissues and organs per model. The resolution spans 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 mm³ across the entire body, ensuring exceptional accuracy. There is, however, the need for a hierarchical, compartmental model of the human body that allows the integration of organ-level models into a common coordinate system. Such an advancement will enable multi-scale modeling, where the cell-level model can adapt to tissue-level environmental conditions and vice versa.

The aim of this project is to develop methodologies and computer-aided tools for creating computational multi-scale models of human male and female anatomy based on the existing ViP models. While, over the years, the ViP has become a reference in computational exposure assessments, especially with respect to safety during magnetic resonance imaging measurements, the existing ViP models lack organ-specific details required for accurate modeling in other potential applications, such as neurophysiology modeling. In addition, in silico trial applications where virtual cohorts of hundreds or thousands of anatomical variations (e.g., heart shapes) are simulated require a realistic embedding, i.e., the surrounding tissues and organ structures. Our goal is, therefore, to functionalize the entire ViP by means of non-linear mapping techniques. To achieve this, the project has two specific objectives: (i) to develop techniques to generate a whole-body mapping between subjects, and (ii) to develop methodologies to align detailed organ models to the coordinate system of the whole body.

Questions? Please contact Dr. Marisa Oliveira kpresearchfund@itis.swiss.