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SUMMARY:The Quest of Modelling Complex Systems - Professor Kim Christensen
 \, Imperial College London
DTSTART:20171018T190000Z
DTEND:20171018T200000Z
UID:TALK84771@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Callum Jones
DESCRIPTION:A car is complicated. It consists of many components with know
 n properties that work together in a predictable way\, ensuring the car do
 es what it is designed to do. A complex system is different in the sense t
 hat the behaviour of the system cannot be predicted from knowing the prope
 rties of the constituent parts alone. For example\, the behaviour of the b
 rain cannot be deduced from studying a single neuron in isolation nor can 
 the behaviour of an ant colony be deduced from studying a single ant in is
 olation. These complex systems display emergent behaviour\, e.g. intellige
 nce or ability to find the shortest route to a food source\, due to the in
 teractions of the constituent parts. We will discuss why it is of paramoun
 t importance to develop new appropriate approaches and theories to investi
 gate such ubiquitous complex systems. \n\nWe will review various examples 
 of complex systems in nature before illustrating how one might model a com
 plex system such as the heart with the emergent property of atrial fibrill
 ation. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common abnormal heart rhythm a
 nd the single biggest cause of stroke. We design a complexity science mode
 l of activation wave front propagation on an anisotropic structure mimicki
 ng the branching network of heart muscle cells. This integration of phenom
 enological dynamics and pertinent structure shows how AF emerges spontaneo
 usly when the transverse cell-to-cell coupling decreases\, as occurs with 
 age\, beyond a threshold value. We identify critical regions responsible f
 or the initiation and maintenance of AF\, the ablation of which terminates
  AF. This insight may eventually lead to patient-specific therapy when it 
 becomes possible to observe the cellular structure of a patient’s heart 
 and thereby improve the currently empirically applied ablation procedure.
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry\, Lensfield Ro
 ad
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