21 February 2007

Richard Clayton wins BHF Competition

Dr. Richard Clayton of the Computational Systems Biology research group has won a national competition 'Reflections of Research', in which British Heart foundation funded researchers were invited to submit images related to their research.

Richards picture, 'A Deadly Spiral in the Heart', illustrates abnormal electrical activity indicating the onset of a heart attack.

Richard says "This image shows a computer simulation of electrical activity in the heart during the onset of cardiac arrest. Instead of regular activity controlled by the pacemaker of the heart, electrical activation (shown in red) has looped around into a spiral that will fragment, resulting in lethal electrical anarchy. This type of computational model integrates models of processes at the cell, tissue, and organ level. It gives powerful insight into the mechanisms of normal and abnormal electrical activity in the heart while reducing the need for experiments using animal tissue."

Comments from the judges included:

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• "Striking, sharp, beautiful...but deadly!"
  
• "Great image and obviously life-saving research to understand cardiac arrest"
  
• "Striking picture, would like it on my wall"