In Silico Heart Failure - Tools for Accelerating Biomedical Research

Heart failure (HF) is a huge and growing health problem in the industrialized world, and is subject of considerable ongoing research. Computer simulations based on detailed biophysical models hold the promise to shed light on many important questions, and to provide a valuable supplement to traditional biomedical research. To this date such in silico models have been used to a very limited degree in HF research, and this is most likely due to the considerable challenges associated with performing accurate computer simulations of heart physiology and pathology. The purpose of this project is to address the most important of these challenges, and to considerably advancing the current state of the art in the field. In particular, we plan to improve existing technology by building a new constitutive framework for actively contracting myocardium, and by considerably increasing the numerical efficiency and reliability of cardiac electro-mechanics simulations. These achievements will be substantial contribution s for establishing computer models as an indispensible tool in biomedical research. In addition to addressing existing limitations in mathematical models and numerical methods, a significant part of the project will be devoted to the study of specific HF related phenomena. This work will be important to demonstrate applicability and usefulness of the developed computational tools, and to increase the visibility and general impact of the research results.