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Large-scale integrating project (IP) proposal Computer modeling for personalised and predictive healthcare in pregnancy: The Virtual Placenta

The obstetric complications of pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are pathological conditions of human pregnancy responsible for significant maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity, with long term developmental and health implications for affected babies in adult life. These related and often coexisting complications have their origins in aberrant placental function. Active research has failed to define either their aetiologies or therapeutic or prophylactic interventions. Such knowledge would have dramatic implications for improved healthcare across Europe and Worldwide. The placenta, in essence, subserves all physiological functions of the human, thereby providing a convenient and accessible tissue to investigate and appreciate these complex interactions. Similar to general human physiology, these functions, i.e. those of gas and nutrient transport, barrier protection, metabolic regulation etc, act in concert, not alone, and are underpinned, like all human biology, by universal processes, e.g. angiogenesis, apoptosis, biochemical kinetics etc. Past failures in predicting, defining and overcoming pre-eclampsia and IUGR, lie in our inability to integrate these functions with additional clinical knowledge. It is therefore timely and even scientifically essential to generate an adaptable in silico model of the human placenta, informed but not restrained by ex vivo and in vitro constraints. In defining a Virtual Placenta, this proposal will (i) apply and develop new tools for information retrieval, (ii) derive knowledge to mathematically model key aspects of placental physiology, (iii) combine these aspects at the multi-scale level, building and annotating the model as an organ, (iv) validate and test the model against known and predicted outcomes, and (v) make this model accessible to wider scientific and clinical communities. Its application will go beyond obstetric care tailored to individual pregnancies, into areas such as pharmacology. The knowledge generated will bring us closer to the Virtual Human. To achieve this goal a multidisciplinary consortium has been formed composed of the finest obstetricians, placental scientists, computer and mathematical modellers, systems biologists and text miners from across the EU, backed by a strong management team and world renowned industrial partners.

virtual placenta; human pregnancy; helatcare

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