ComPh Modelling Week

March 20-24, 2017, Simula hosts a week's course in computational biology and physiology with a focus on medical imaging and modeling. Register here. The application deadline has been extended to March 05, 2017.

Course background and content

Rapid advances in medical imaging and patient-specific computational modeling combined with the on-going explosion of sequencing data and their analysis using bioinformatics provide clinicians and life scientists with a dizzying array of information on which to base their decisions. Due to the heterogeneity/noisiness of the collected data/complexity of the underlying physiology, it also presents major challenges for their adequate data analysis and interpretation.

Taking our motivation from this unmet medical need, the ComPh modeling week will provide unique training opportunities for mathematicians and engineers with the purpose of designing and implementing computational tools for modeling and data analysis from existing and developing experimental modalities in various biomedical fields (cardiology, cancer, etc.). Starting with a gentle introduction to biostatistics, system biology, computational physiology, and big data analysis, the course will discuss state of the art techniques in the corresponding fields as well as their translatability to the routine clinical use. Practical projects outlining industrial and societal challenges will give the opportunity to have hands-on experience and apply the techniques to real-life problems.

ComPh is a 30 hours course on computational physiology including theory classes and group work on practical projects. The course covers foundations as well as recent advances in computational physiology, biostatistics with an emphasis on risk stratification and disease prediction.

Due to the close supervision and interaction in the project phase, the course enrolment is limited to 60 participants.

Basic Info

Venue

The school will take place at Simula Research Laboratory, Martin Linges vei 25, 1364 Fornebu, Norway. Consult our page on directions and traveling information for more details on how to get to Simula.

All lectures will take place in “Storstua” auditorium at Simula. All project work will take place in assigned workspaces at Simula (detailed later).

Accommodations

There are several hotels and options for accommodation available near Simula, and the city center is 25 minutes away by bus. More details on accommodation will follow later.

Lecturers and lecture titles

Jan Hasenauer (Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany): Systems biology: from models to drug candidates?“

Turid Frahnow (Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany): Biostatistics: from genome to diseases prevention? – polygenic risk scores

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Lukas Simon (Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany): RNA-sequencing: from reads to biological insight

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Kristian Valen-Sendstad (Simula Research Laboratory, Norway): Medical image based Computational Fluid Dynamics - ready for clinical use, or simply Colours For Doctors?

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Valeriya Naumova (Simula Research Laboratory, Norway): From Big Data to Big Insights – Big Data in Healthcare

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Read more about our lectures, including recommended reading. 

Invited guests

• Eigil Samset, General Electrics, Norway
• Thomas Kessler, Alacris Theranostics GmbH, Germany
• Susanna Röblitz, Zuse Institute Berlin, Germany
• Jessica Menold, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, US

Practical projects 

Over 3.5 days, space and supervision will be provided at Simula Research Laboratory for project teams to work together on the assigned project. The project work will be finished with a formal project presentation by students in a symposium-like setting. To enhance students’ scientific presentation skills, a 2-hour course on scientific communication will be provided before. Suggested project titles and supervisors are listed below, and detailed descriptions are available on the project page.

• Drug target prediction using mechanistic models (Jan Hasenauer)
• Disease risk prediction using polygenic risk scores (Turid Frahnow)
• RNA-seq differential gene expression analysis (Lukas Simon)
• Inverse problems of the heart (Valeriya Naumova) (canceled)
• Accurate biophysical simulations with machine learning techniques (Kristian Valen-Sendstad)

Syllabus

Required materials 

Laptop computer: If you do not plan on bringing your own laptop or do not have access to a laptop for the duration of the school, please notify us as soon as possible and we’ll find a solution.

Organizers

• Valeriya Naumova (Simula Research Laboratory, Norway)
• Jan Hasenauer, Christiane Fuchs, Fabian Theis, Simon Lukas, Turid Frahnow (Helmholtz Zentrum München, HMGU, Germany)

This initiative is supported by COST Action TD1409, Mathematics for Industry Network (MI-NET) It is also co-sponsored by Digital Life Norway Research School, which will provide the travel support to their members to attend the school.

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