Bio
Coveney is a Professor of Physical Chemistry, Honorary Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Centre for Computational Science (CCS) and Associate Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London (UCL). He is also a Professor of Applied High Performance Computing at University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Member of Academia Europaea. Coveney is active in a broad area of interdisciplinary research including condensed matter physics and chemistry, materials science, as well as life and medical sciences in all of which high performance computing plays a major role. The citation about Coveney on his election as a FREng says: Coveney "has made outstanding contributions across a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials, computer science, high performance computing and biomedicine, much of it harnessing the power of supercomputing to conduct original research at unprecedented space and time scales. He has shown outstanding leadership across these fields, manifested through running multiple initiatives and multi-partner interdisciplinary grants, in the UK, Europe and the US. His achievements at national and international level in advocacy and enablement are exceptional".
He is co-author, with Roger Highfield, of "Virtual You: How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionize Medicine and Change Your Life", published on 28 March 2023.
Abstract
The virtual human concept is a compelling one, offering an in silico environment — now known as a digital twin — within which truly personalised medicine can be implemented, taking into account the specific features of every one of us as an individual, from our personal genome to the anatomy of our connected organ systems, and beyond into human populations and clinical trials. Such virtual humans will not only support medical and clinical treatment and decision making, they will also reduce the need for animal testing and serve as personal avatars which will assist every one of us in making healthcare and lifestyle choices. The theory, modelling, software and computational challenges associated with the virtual human are immense and will require many years of intensive research effort to bring to fruition. However, the modern principles of modular assembly of tried and tested components will take advantage of the considerable progress already being made in many aspects of the overall virtual human. Indeed, building virtual humans presents a multiscale challenge, as we must integrate data and models at every level ranging between molecular, sub-cellular, cells, tissues and organs (and even beyond the single human to population health to address epidemiological issues). My talk will make comparison with other ambitious digital twin projects underway today and outline several biomedical issues which are being addressed today, based on various components of the future virtual human. These examples illustrate how future patient-specific medical treatments will draw increasingly on the massive power of modern IT systems, including big data, artificial intelligence and supercomputing.