Lunch Hour Lecture: Virtual Humans, Supercomputers and Health

UCL Minds

Imagine assembling a silicon twin for every person using their digital health data, from the sequence of their genome to the architecture and gait of their skeleton. You could test different lifestyles on this digital twin to choose a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle. Your physician could test different clinical treatments on your digital twin to choose the one that is best for you, specifically. The age of Virtual Humans is dawning, providing each of us with the opportunity to actively manage our health and wellbeing. Date: 29th April 2021 About the speaker: Professor Andrea Townsend-Nicholson, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, from the Research Department of Structural and Molecular Biology (UCL Division of Biosciences) Andrea is interested in understanding how extracellular signals are transduced into intracellular responses. Her research is strongly focused on enhancing our understanding of the molecular basis of health and disease and her work focuses primarily on elucidating the role of cell surface receptors in these processes. We use molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, cellular imaging, cell signalling and molecular pharmacology to study purinergic, glutamatergic, GABAergic and dopaminergic responses in the central and autonomic nervous systems and in the cardiovascular system. She is also interested in the development of new technologies to help gain a more refined understanding of existing cellular systems and to use these methods, in the case of bioelectrosprays, to generate new tissues and biological structures from individual cells for therapeutic benefit. Free to attend, live stream or watch online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY7vFbAmvRA&t=11s More info: events.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Join the conversation on Twitter at #UCLMinds #MadeAtUCL