Modelling Optimization and Control of Biomedical Systems

Preface

A great challenge when dealing with severe diseases, such as cancer or diabetes, is the implementation of an appropriate treatment. Design of treatment protocols is not a trivial issue, especially since nowadays there is significant evidence that the type of treatment depends on specific characteristics of individual patients.

In silico design of high‐fidelity mathematical models, which accurately describe a specific disease in terms of a well‐defined biomedical network, will allow the optimisation of treatment through an accurate control of drug dosage and delivery. Within this context, the aim of the Modelling, Control and Optimisation of Biomedical Systems (MOBILE) project is to derive intelligent computer model‐based systems for optimisation of biomedical drug delivery systems in the cases of diabetes, anaesthesia and blood cancer (i.e., leukaemia).

From a computational point of view, the newly developed algorithms will be able to be implemented on a single chip, which is ideal for biomedical applications that were previously off‐limits for model‐based control. Simpler hardware is adequate for the reduced on‐line computational requirements, which will lead to lower costs and almost eliminate the software costs (e.g., licensed numerical solvers). Additionally, there is increased control power, since the new MPC approach can accommodate much larger – and more accurate – biomedical system models (the computational burden is shifted off‐line).

From a practical point ...