14 DAY TRIAL // The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is one of the most ambitious projects of the 21st century, one that makes use of the technological and scientific knowledge that we've gained so far in order to recreate a replica of the human body in computer simulation. In this never-ending and increasingly complex process, in which new simulations will always be added, researchers hope to find a solution to testing new drugs and therapies, without having to use animals, and with the assurance that they get human-like responses on every attempt.
A giant leap in this direction is being taken this week at the University of Nottingham, as mathematics experts and medical researchers will work together for seven days, in order to create a truly unique and cross-disciplinary VPH training program that will involve such work groups being established at all 13 institutions united in the Pan-European Virtual Physiological Human project, as well as in a number of other universities across the continent.
The goal of these meetings will be to provide academics, clinicians and industrial researchers with the possibility of getting together and studying the human body as a whole, and not just as the sum of its components. The postgraduate training program is believed to be among the best ways imaginable of getting a large number of great minds together, in hopes of understanding as much as possible our own bodies, and then translating that knowledge into computer simulations. They could then be used for testing new drugs and therapies, without exposing humans to risks, and without testing substances on animals either.
“This study group is one of the prototypes for the sort of collaborative study which will be a key feature of our new VPH training program. The course will allow postgraduates to train within the VPH network of European universities and, crucially, to access and contribute to a virtual VPH academy online,” the workshop University of Nottingham School of Mathematical Sciences representative, Dr. Bindi Brook, explains. The entire VPH program is sponsored by the European Union with about 72 million euros, but critics say that these are very small funds, considering the fact that the research has the ability to change the face of medicine in the 21st century.