University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Description of organization
The University of Sheffield (USFD) has been named UK University of the Year in the 2011 Times Higher Education Awards. We have nearly 25,000 students from 128 countries, and over 5,500 staff. The University of Sheffield is a popular choice with applicants for university places, and once they arrive our students enjoy the experience so much that many settle in Sheffield after they graduate. Our research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. The University's history stretches back to 1828, when the Sheffield School of Medicine was founded, and our University Charter was granted in 1905.
Previous experience
USFD has a solid track record in the technological research area called Virtual Physiological Human (VPH). USFD was one of the nine institutions that wrote the initial research roadmap for the VPH, it is core partner in some of the most important VPH projects such as EU-Heart or the VPH Network of Excellence, coordinate two of the largest VPH projects (VPHOP and VPH-Share), and contributes to many other large and small projects. USFD is one of the ten founding institutions of the VPH Institute.
Profile of staff members
Marco Viceconti is full Professor of Biomechanics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Before this he was the Technical Director of the Medical Technology Lab at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna, Italy. He is currently President of the European Alliance of Biomedical Engineering (EAMBES). His main research interests are related to the development and validation of medical technology, especially that involving simulation, and primarily in relation to musculoskeletal diseases. He has published over 200 papers, mostly indexed in Medline, and serves as reviewer for many international funding agencies and peer-reviewed journals. Marco Viceconti is one of the key figures in the emerging Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) community. Co-author of the first white paper on VPH, scientific co-ordinator of the seminal VPH research roadmap, "VPH ambassador" for the VPH Network of Excellence, Co-ordinator of one the VPHOP integrated project, he is also currently chairing the Board of Directors of the VPH Institute.
Rod Hose is currently a Professor in Computational Biomechanics in the Medical Physics Group in the Department of Cardiovascular Science. His research interests are in the development of methods and workflows for the computational analysis of (primarily) cardiovascular systems, and in their translation to clinical application. He has been intimately involved in the development of the Virtual Physiological Human initiative from its beginning.
Alejandro Frangi is Professor of Biomedical Image Computing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with a joint appointment at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain. His main research interests are in biomedical image computing and image-based computational physiology. He hosted the first meeting that in 2005 gave birth to the VPH initiative, coordinated one of the first VPH projects, called @neurIST, and continue to be involved in many VPH initiatives.
Webpage
Five recent publications relevant to the project
1) Singh, P. K., Marzo, A., Howard, B., Rufenacht, D. A., Bijlenga, P., Frangi, A. F., Lawford. P. V., Coley, S.C., Hose, D. R. & Patel, U. J. (2010),Effects of smoking and hypertension on wall shear stress and oscillatory shear index at the site of intracranial cerebral aneurysm formation, Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, 112(4), pp. 306-313.
2) Hunter, P. J., Coveney, P. V., de Bono, B., Diaz, V., Fenner, J., Frangi, A. F., Harris, P., Hose, R. D., Kohl, P., Lawford, P., McCormack, K., Mendes, M., Omholt, S., Quarteroni, A., Skår, J., Tegner, J., Thomas, S. R., Tollis, I., Tsamardinos, I., van Beek, J. H. G. M. & Viceconti, M. (2010),A vision and strategy for the virtual physiological human in 2010 and beyond, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, 368, pp. 2961-2982.
3) Romero, D. A., Sebastian, R., Bijnens, B. H., Zimmerman, V. B., Boyle, P. M., Vigmond, E. J. & Frangi, A. F. (2010), Effects of the Purkinje system and cardiac geometry on biventricular pacing: A model study, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 38(4), pp. 1388-98.
4) Viceconti, M. & McCulloch, A. D. (2011), Policy needs and options for a common approach towards modelling and simulation of human physiology and diseases with a focus on the Virtual Physiological Human, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 170, pp. 49-82.
5) Viceconti, M., Taddei, F., Van Sint Jan, S., Leardini, A., Cristofolini, L., Stea, S., Baruffaldi, F. & Baleani M. (2008), Multiscale modelling of the skeleton for the prediction of the risk of fracture, Clinical Biomechanics, 23(7), pp. 845-52.