PhD in Mathematics and Statistics: Electrophysiological modelling of hearts with diseases

SofTMechMP is a new International Centre to Centre Collaboration between the SofTMech Centre for Multiscale Soft Tissue Mechanics (www.softmech.org) and two world-leading research centres, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA and Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) in Italy, funded by the EPSRC. Its exciting programme of research will address important new mathematical challenges driven by clinical needs, such as tissue damage and healing, by developing multiscale soft tissue models that are reproducible and testable against experiments.
Heart disease has a strong negative impact on society. In the United Kingdom alone, there are about 1.5 million people living with the burden of a heart attack. In developing countries, too, heart disease is becoming an increasing problem. Unfortunately, the exact mechanisms by which heart failure occurs are poorly understood. On a more optimistic note, a revolution is underway in healthcare and medicine - numerical simulations are increasingly being used to help diagnose and treat heart disease and devise patient-specific therapies. This approach depends on three key enablers acting in accord. First, mathematical models describing the biophysical changes of biological tissue in disease must be formulated for any predictive computation to be possible at all. Second, statistical techniques for uncertainty quantification and parameter inference must be developed to link these models to patient-specific clinical measurements. Third, efficient numerical algorithms and codes need to be designed to ensure that the models can be simulated in real time so they can be used in the clinic for prediction and prevention.

The goals of this project include designing more efficient algorithms for numerical simulation of the electrical behaviour of hearts with diseases on cell, tissue and on whole-organ levels. The most accurate tools we have, at present, are so called monolithic models where the differential equations describing constituent processes are assembled in a single large system and simultaneously solved, While accurate, the monolithic approaches are expensive as a huge disparity in spatial and temporal scales between relatively slow mechanical and much faster electrical processes exists and must be resolved. However, not all electrical behaviour is fast so the project will exploit advances in cardiac asymptotics to develop a reduced kinematic description of propagating electrical signals. These reduced models will be fully coupled to the original partial-differential equations for spatio-temporal evolution of the slow nonlinear dynamic fields. This will allow significantly larger spatial and time steps to be used in monolithic numerical schemes and pave the way for clinical applications, particularly coronary perfusion post infarction. The models thus developed will be applied to specific problems of interest, including
(1) coupling among myocyte-fibroblast-collagen scar;
(2) shape analysis of scar tissue and their effects on electric signal propagation;
(3) personalized 3D heart models using human data.


The project will require and will develop knowledge of mathematical modelling, asymptotic and numerical methods for PDEs and software development and some basic knowledge of physiology. Upon completion you will be a mature researcher with broad interdisciplinary education. You will not only be prepared for an independent scientific career, but will be much sought after by both academia and industry for the rare combination of mathematical and numerical skills.

How to Apply: Please refer to the following website for details on how to apply:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/opportunities/howtoapplyforaresearchdegree/

Short-listing of applicants will begin on 28 January 2020
Start Date: September/October 2020