Computers at the heart of the matter University of Oxford

Sophisticated computer models of the heart, developed by computer scientists at the University of Oxford, are helping to predict which new drugs are free from cardiac-related side effects. Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed computational techniques that are able to model the effect of specific pharmacological compounds on the heart and flag up problems early in drug development. As early as the 1960s Professor Denis Noble, a physiologist from the University of Oxford, had recognised the potential of mathematical models of the heart and developed a prototype. Building on this work, Professor of Computational Biology David Gavaghan and his colleagues have constructed a computer model which accurately replicates the effects of drugs on the electrophysiology of cardiac cells. Electrophysiology – the flow of ions in and out of cells via ion channels – drives the heart by releasing calcium to make the muscles contract and pump blood.