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Real-World Biomedical Simulations

© Adam Hughes

Over the last several months, this space has been filled with information about how researchers are making use of modern computers and computational methods to study biologically important molecules and systems. We've seen examinations of species from individual amino acids all the way up to DNA and lipid membranes. Having examined how simulation gives insight to the nature of these microscopic entities, one of the next logical questions might be, "Can we simulate some aspect of biological reality that is actually large enough to see?". This is a topic we've touched on before, but it is worth revisiting at this point, so we will.

For proof of the feasibility and efficacy of simulation studies on larger biological systems, one needs look no further than the "Virtual Reality in Medicine and Biology Group", based at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. This group was formed to take advantage of virtual reality and simulation techniques to study some of the problems currently of interest in medical research. The group is multidisciplinary in nature, with collaborators from the Department of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering, the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, the Department of Orthopedics, the Department of Mathematics, and the Department of Surgery. A visit to the group site at

http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/vrmbg

will prove very interesting for the technology or virtual reality buff.

A quick glance at the front page of the web site shows that present and past projects range from a virtual training system for performing knee surgery, to an orthopedic model of a human hand, to sports simulations. The really interesting thing, however, is that some of our old friends turn up when you examine these studies a little closer.

Click on the link the "Virtual Reality of Heart Valve Design", and you'll be treated to a discussion of how Computational Fluid Dynamics, or CFD, methods were used to model the blood flow in the heart. Move on to the "Sports Simulation" page, and you'll again see CFD at work, this time in the description of how a cricket ball gets its "swing". Or click on any of the other studies for a discussion of modeling techniques and scientific visualization methods. This site holds a lot of interesting information for someone who wants to know how simulation is currently being used to attack real-life biomedical problems. Take the time to browse through, and you won't be disappointed.

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