Virtual Physiological Human

The Virtual Physiological Human is a methodological and technological framework that once established will enable the investigation of the human body as a single complex system.

The human body is like a jigsaw puzzle made of a trillion pieces. Currently we try to understand the whole picture by looking at a single piece, or at a few closely interconnected pieces. The Virtual Physiological Human is the frame within which we can finally start to place the pieces all together, and the glue that connect them. The Virtual Physiological Human is not the whole picture, but in the only way might hope one day to see it.

We claim that, given sufficient resources, the European Research System can develop in the next 10 years the Virtual Physiological Human.

VPH framework will be descriptive, integrative and predictive. It will make possible the creation of:

• large collections of anatomical, physiological, and pathological data stored in digital format
• large collections of predictive models that can be interconnected to form effective representations of complex systems
• services aimed to support the researchers in the creation and maintenance of these models, as well as to empower clinical, industrial and societal users in the use of the VPH resource.

This makes VPH particularly relevant for biomedical industry, for pharmaceutical industry, and more in general for all those industrial domains that deal with the so-called Body Industry.

The VPH framework will make possible to span multiple dimensional scales (from the whole body down to the cells and the proteins they synthesise), to account for the inter-subject variability, and to make possible the combination of patient-specific data with population-based representations.

To create the VPH we need brand new technologies, specifically developed to pursue this scope; this is called VPH Technology.

To disseminate the Virtual Physiological Human please use this Press Release English Press Release French Press Release Russian Press Release Polish Press Release Italian Press Release Dutch .

Yearly check-up: 15-05-2017 is a fictional description of a possible diagnostic system when the VPH is avaialble. It is intended mostly for media and non-experts, but it might give a vision also to researchers.