The IUPS Physiome Project. International Union of Physiological Sciences

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Computational Biology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Modern medicine increasingly utilizes genomic, proteomic, and advanced clinical imaging techniques.
• Integrating diverse data sources like DNA profiles, protein expression, and imaging is poised to enhance patient assessment.
• The Physiome Project seeks to establish a computational framework for modeling the human body.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop comprehensive integrative mathematical models of human physiology.
• To analyze integrative biological function using computational modeling, linking structure to molecular mechanisms.
• To support the Physiome Project's goal of creating web-accessible physiological databases.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing computational methods to model the human body, incorporating cellular, tissue, and organ biochemistry, biophysics, and anatomy.
• Developing patient-specific quantitative descriptions of anatomical structures.
• Modeling biophysical processes down to the genetic level.

Main Results:

• The framework enables the analysis of integrative biological function based on underlying structure and molecular mechanisms.
• Web-accessible physiological databases are being established to store model-related data across multiple biological levels.
• The approach facilitates the creation of sophisticated physiological models.

Conclusions:

• Comprehensive integrative mathematical models of human physiology can be developed.
• These models can incorporate patient-specific anatomical and biophysical data, extending to the genetic level.
• The Physiome Project's framework supports advanced computational analysis of human biological systems.