Objective Heart disease is the number one cause of death in industrialized nations. Despite the broad class of treatment techniques such as medication, surgery and tissue-engineered therapies, heart disease remains to be one of the most frequent, disabling, and life-threatening diseases. In Europe it accounts for almost half of overall annual mortality rate. In the European Union (EU) alone, cardiovascular disease causes over 2 million deaths per year. The cost of cardiovascular disease to the EU economy is €192 billion per year. As opposed to the traditional trial-and-error based therapies, a systematic, personalized simulation-aided approach offers a great potential for understanding, diagnosing, and treating heart failure through the sound understanding of functional and structural changes in the infarcted tissue and the computational tools of multi-scale solid mechanics. The proposed research aims: (1) to develop multi-scale models of computational cardiac electrophysiology, (2) to model the fully coupled electromechanics of the heart through a novel micro-structurally based kinematic approach, (3) to couple the electromechanical computational tool with the ionic models of cardiac electrophysiology, (4) to employ the new multi-scale tools of computational cardiology to explore the underlying complex mechanisms of heart diseases and thereby guide personalized cardiac therapies. The anticipated outcomes are: (A) a multi-scale computational electrophysiological tool that incorporates multi-physics ionic models in the implicit bidomain framework, (B) a better understanding of underlying physiological reasons for electrophysiological cardiac disease such as arrhythmia, left and right bundle blocks, (C) a novel, micro-structurally based, computationally efficient, modular electromechanical computational tool, (D) a virtual test environment for the patient-specific optimization of cardiac therapies and surgical procedures. Fields of science medical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseasescardiac arrhythmiamedical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsmedical and health sciencesclinical medicinesurgerysurgical proceduresnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational sciencemultiphysicsnatural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicssolid mechanics Programme(s) FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG - Marie-Curie Action: "Career Integration Grants" Call for proposal FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG) Coordinator MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY EU contribution € 100 000,00 Address DUMLUPINAR BULVARI 1 06800 Ankara Türkiye See on map Region Batı Anadolu Ankara Ankara Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Irem Dikmen Toker (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data