WC 2003 Plenary Speakers

Professor Richard Kitney
Plenary Speaker
"The Double Helix, and the Role of Engineering and Physics in the Post Genomic Age"

This year sees the 50th anniversary of the publication of Watson and Crick's letter to Nature, entitled "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids". For many, this was the most important discovery of the twentieth century, spawning major advances in molecular biology that will dramatically alter the practice of medicine in the coming decades.

Richard Kitney, Professor of Biomedical Systems Engineering at Imperial College, London, will argue that the molecular biology revolution has only been possible through the extensive application of engineering and physical science. In fact, a second, and almost more important, revolution in information and communication technology has been the real driver of change. This revolution began with the work of Norbert Weiner on cybernetics and Claude Shannon on information technology. Over the last 50 years we have moved from the invention of a single transistor, to laptop computers with 6 million transistors on a single chip CPU; from almost no international telephone calls to broadband networks that span the world and convey 1000 million pieces of information per second. This is what has made the Human Genome Project possible.

Professor Kitney's group have spent many years developing advanced clinical information systems. Over the last few years they have developed web-based systems capable of handling the full range of medical information. Their technology was commercialised via an Imperial College spinoff company, ComMedica, which won the 2002 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovations Award. In the Department of Radiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, one of their systems handles, fully automatically, all the medical information for 1.6 million people, including 8,000 new images a day.

Professor Peter Hunter
Plenary Speaker
"The Electromechanics of the Heart and the Physiome Project"

Although he is a mildmannered academic, Peter Hunter is quick to reveal his heart. But Professor Hunter, who works at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, carries this heart on a laptop, not his sleeve. It is an astonishingly life-like representation of the ventricles of a human heart, from the fine net of blood vessels that surround the organ to the specific proteins of individual cells within it.

This "virtual" organ is the work of the Cardiome Project, a consortium of bioengineers, physiologists and computer scientists who are knitting together the complex anatomy, mechanics and electro-physiology of the heart into an interactive model. The on-screen organ is a spectacular example of in silico biology, an emerging discipline that brings computing power to bear on a wide range of biological problems-from analysing genomes to recreating neural networks.

Making sense of the deluge that will flow from work on the human genome and understanding how the various pieces interact to produce such complicated biological activities as heartbeats, requires more complex ways of thinking about physiology than can be done on the back of an envelope. Hence the promise of "computational physiology".

The virtual heart is a union of form and function on a computer screen. Its gross shape was determined by analysing thousands of wafer-thin slices of a dog's heart. These measurements were digitised and fed into a computer. The three-dimensional arrangement of the cells and muscles within each slice was determined by microscopy, and that information added to the geometric data in the computer. Also included in the model was a sequence of mathematical equations to represent the physical properties of the tissues involved in defining such things as: how the heart tissue behaves when stressed.

All this information was tied together in a computer program developed by researchers at the University of Auckland to create a structural framework of the heart. Onto this framework, Professor Hunter's team was then free to attach functional components that represent mathematically many of the activities within the heart; for example, ion channels opening and closing during a surge of electrical current through the heart. The result is a visual simulation that looks and behaves much like the real heart it mimics.

Professor Hunter's virtual heart forms part of the Physiome Project launched four years ago by James Bassingthwaighte of the University of Washington in Seattle. The grand plan comprises two parts. One is to catalogue physiological information, from previously published research and continuing experiments, into digital databases. The other is to organise this information into a hierarchy of quantitative models that will integrate the activity of one organ - from genes up to whole collections of tissues. The Physiome Project will provide a tool to help researchers refine their ideas before even approaching the laboratory bench, and to improve their understanding of the result afterwards.

Details on a few interesting congress tracks and symposia are announced by the WC 2003 organisers, too.

Track 12
New Frontiers in Medical Physics & Biomedcal Engineering
Highlights include:

  • BioMEMS and Lab-on-the-chip
  • Biomolecules and cells on surfaces
  • BME & MP in Integrative Medicine (incl: Symposium: Biomedical Engineering in Integrative Medicine)
  • Databases and data mining for genomics and proteomics
  • Functional imaging and single molecule/cell manipulation
  • In silico 'whole cell' modelling and biocomputation
  • Micro and nano-arrays; nanoparticles
  • Molecular engineering of ion channels and membranes
  • Molecular modelling, structure and function prediction
  • Molecular motors and nanomechanics
  • Photo- and laser technologies
  • Physiome modelling
  • Thermal and electromagnetic technology, electroporation and electropermeabilisation

Track 20
Special Topics [these are a group of cutting-edge topics from other Tracks]
Highlights include:

  • NSF sponsored session: "Novel Careers in Biomedical Engineering" chaired by Prof Carol Lucas
  • ** NSF sponsored symposium. 'Engineering Applied to Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Health Care Solutions chaired by Prof Dov Jaron
  • ** IFMBE Asia Pacific Working Group Symposium "Biomedical Engineering in Integrative Medicine" [see T12,12 above] Prof K Atsumi & Prof YH Chang
  • Tutorial on Optical coherence tomography
  • Challenging the current model of cell function
  • Refresher Course: Experimental and clinical guide to cardiovascular variability
  • Workshop: Engineering Approaches to the Detection of Micro-organisms
  • Tutorial on "Writing a Scientific Paper" by MBEC Editor, Professor Alan Murray.
  • Workshop on Tissue Engineering for Newcomers

Symposium details

IFMBE Asia-Pacific WG Symposium "Biomedical Engineering in Integrative Medicine"

K. Atsumi: Bridging From Modern Western Medicine to Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Biomedical Engineering
Y.H. Chang: Development of Bioengineering Technology in the Diagnosis of Chinese Medicine
Y. Ueda: Application of ME apparatus to the basic experiments in Acupuncture using f- MRI and brain waves
Y. Machi: Physiological Evaluation Method in the practice of Regimen Qigong
K. Uebaba: Healing Robot for the scientific study on Traditional Indian Medicine
Su: The application of data mining in tongue viewing system
Weng: Development of an expert system in the diagnosis of hepatic diseases by combining laboratory data and inquiring symptoms in Chinese medicine
C.C. Chiu: Using Computerized and Electrical Engineering for Oriental/Integrative Medicine

NSF Symposium
"Engineering Applied to Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Health Care Solutions with Potential to Reduce Health Care Costs"

Symposium co-chairs: Dov Jaron (Drexel University) & Steven E. Kern (University of Utah)

Todd Parrish et al (Northwestern University):
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Real and Sham Acupuncture

Elisa Konofagou et al (Harvard University):
Imaging Of The Effect Of Acupuncture Needling On Human Connective Tissue In Vivo

Ofer Barnea (Tel Aviv University):
Peripheral temperature oscillations and sympathetic activity in mental stress and biofeedback relaxation

Michael Bernas et al (University of Arizona):
Massage Therapy in the Treatment of Lymphedema: Rationale, Results, and Applications

Xiao Peigen et al (Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China):
Application of fungal secondary metabolites in the substituted therapy

Jinzhou Tian et al (Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Beijing, China):
The inhibition effects of Chinese ginseng extracts on expression of IL-1ßmRNA and protein following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion

Zenaib Khalil et al (National Aging research Institute, Melbourne, Australia):
Pain relieving properties of an extract from the toxin of the cone snail