1st VPH NoE Study Group gets under way
Nottingham University is one of the 13 institutions involved in the VPH NoE and as part of WP4 (Work Package 4: Training and Career Development) is charged with developing a post-graduate VPH training programme which will be truly unique, cross-disciplinary and will involve periods of study for this kind of multi-disciplinary scientist at universities across Europe. The initiative of the Virtual Physiological Human took a major step forward this week at The University of Nottingham when a week-long study group to investigate one aspect of VPH science took place on campus. Mathematicians and medical researchers came together to use mathematical modelling to suggest solutions to currently unsolved biomedical problems.
Study groups are workshops promoting the interaction between modellers and academic and industrial researchers working within life sciences. The latter two are invited to present technical problems for study in intensive workshops with leading mathematical modellers from the academic community. The task for this week for the groups was to try to model various problems relating to regenerative medicine, with a focus on epithelial (membrane) cells in the skin, bladder, lungs, gut, heart and breast. The aim of the week was for groups to come up with new theoretical models which could result in journal publications, and eventually funded research projects in their own right.
Dr Bindi Brook of the University’s School of Mathematical Sciences said: “This study group is one of the prototypes for the sort of collaborative study which will be a key feature of our new VPH training programme. The course will allow postgraduates to train within the VPH network of European universities and, crucially, to access and contribute to a virtual VPH academy online.”
The University of Nottingham, with the Municipal Institute of Medical Investigation in Barcelona, the University of Sheffield and other leading institutions, are launching a new VPH training programme over the next year and aims to start recruiting the first students in September 2010. For more information please keep an eye on the WP4 Training and Career Development webpage.