Lungs and Respiratory System

The pulmonary research group develops anatomically- and biophysically- based mathematical models of the pulmonary system, from the cellular level through to integrative whole organ function and interaction with other organ systems. The aim of our research is to understand the complex structure-function relationships in the lung and respiratory system, through a combination of experiment, imaging, and interpretation using mathematical models. This approach increases our understanding of the physiology of the lung, and has clinical relevance in understanding the regional mechanisms that contribute to standard clinical measures of lung function.

• Project members and collaborators
• Project publications

Current group projects include modelling pulmonary perfusion, ventilation distribution, the mechanics of the lung tissue and of the individual airways and vessels, investigating how heat and humidity change down the airway in the clinical setting, and modelling how gases mix in the airway tree to provide measures that could be used as an indication of airway function.

Current CT imaging technology provides high resolution structural information in the lung, and an increasing amount of functional information is emerging from both CT and MRI. Clinical tests typically provide global measures of function that do not indicate regional changes in e.g. tissue structure, or airway constriction. By using models that faithfully represent the geometry of the individual, we can investigate how normal and disease related non-uniformities in the lung contribute to clinical measures and CT- or MR-imaged function.

We use state-of-the-art CT imaging (University of Iowa) to define the geometry of models of lung, lobes, airways, and blood vessels. The models are customizable to an individual, have accurate spatial relationships between airway, tissue, and vessel, and can be used for solution of systems of equations that govern function at any level within the organ.

For example, we use a model of the mechanical deformation of the lung tissue to estimate pressures acting on the pulmonary blood vessels when the lung is in normal or zero gravity, or in different orientations. These pressures influence predictions of regional blood flow in models of the arterial and venous tree. We have used this coupled model to investigate the relative contributions of branching geometry and gravity to perfusion heterogeneity, an understanding of which is important for interpretation of perfusion imaging.

The Project gratefully acknowledges the support of its funding partners:

• Woolf Fisher Trust