[CSEE-colloq] talk: Virtual Human Simulator: Computer-aided Exploration of Human Biology, 1pm Fri 4/13, UMBC

[Tim Finin]

                          UMBC CSEE Colloquium

                      THE VIRTUAL HUMAN SIMULATOR:
              COMPUTER-AIDED EXPLORATION OF HUMAN BIOLOGY

                      Professor Andreas Linninger
                   University of Illinois at Chicago

              1:00pm Friday, 13 April 2012, 227 ITE, UMBC


Engineering has substantially impacted the world by creating material
wealth through design of chemical production plants, synthesis of
specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals and sustainable processes for
energy and the environment. Systematic engineering methods are also
driving a transformation in biomedicine. We will present developments
in advanced scientific computing for discovering the fundamental
transport and reaction mechanisms in biological systems.

Novel medical imaging modalities open unprecedented views into organ
function and cellular chemistry of whole organisms in vivo. The
quantitative investigation of spatio-temporal reaction and transport
phenomena opens a path for the rational design of drug delivery
therapies to specific target areas of the human central nervous
system. Image-based computational fluid dynamics (iCFD) will be
introduced as a new methodology integrating medical imaging modalities
with rigorous transport principles. System dynamics and control theory
are centerpieces in the prediction of cerebral hemodynamics towards
better treatment options for stroke. Non-linear mathematical
programming techniques developed by chemical engineers for large scale
process optimization are key to parameter estimation in
pharmacokinetic and toxicity studies as well as novel techniques for
design optimization of gene therapies. The integration of transport
and reaction phenomena with anatomical and physiologically consistent
computer models spanning the molecular, cellular through the
macroscopic length scales lead us to progressively accurate
predictions of metabolic functions in the normal and pathological
conditions. Prototype developments of the virtual human simulator to
engineer design solution in-silico will be demonstrated. Case studies
will illustrate the state-of-the-art in computing cerebral blood flow
patterns, computer-aided design of drug administration therapies and
physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling for new drug leads.


Dr. Andreas A. Linninger is Professor of Chemical Engineering and
Bioengineering and Director of the Laboratory for Product and Process
Design at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He received Diploma
and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Vienna University of
Technology. He received postgraduate training at the Rijksuniversiteit
Gent, the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. His research interests in process system
engineering include computer-aided process synthesis, mathematical
modeling of complex systems and design under uncertainty. He has
published more than 100 papers on parameter estimation in distributed
systems, synthesis of distillative separation networks, integrated
design and control, process design for the environment and
computational fluid mechanics methods in biological systems.

Host: Yelena Yesha
For more information: http://csee.umbc.edu/talks