Tag Archives: Heart

World Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum put women at the heart of economic transformation

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That was the central message of the Manama Declaration, issued at the close of the World Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum (WEIF) held this week in Bahrain.

The declaration places women at the heart of economic transformation, underscoring that empowering them within business and innovation ecosystems is essential to achieving inclusive and sustainable growth.

It also calls for strengthening women’s presence across emerging sectors, including the green, blue and orange economies which respectively promote environmental responsibility, sustainable use of ocean resources and creativity.

Organized by the UN Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Bahrain, the forum convened leaders, investors and entrepreneurs from around the world to shape a more resilient global economy and unlock new opportunities for women-led enterprises.

 

Women entrepreneurs gather on stage at the International Woman Entrepreneurial Challenge 2026 in Manama, Bahrain.

“An amazing opportunity”

For many participants, the forum delivered tangible results.

Doris Martin, CEO of DMartin Consultancy in Bahrain, attended in search of meaningful collaboration and found it.

Through business-to-business (B2B) meetings facilitated during the event, she established partnerships with companies in the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

“This forum has been effective for me,” she told UN News. “I’ve had B2B collaboration with regional companies through Bahrain and through UNIDO.”

Tosin Arwejulo, CEO of Leadership Excel Consultancy and a Nigerian-American entrepreneur based in Bahrain, described the forum as a “powerful networking platform.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to talk to people from literally every continent,” she said. “It has been an amazing opportunity to connect with like-minded leaders.”

 

From left to right: Tosin Arwejulo, CEO of Leadership Excel Consultancy and a Nigerian-American entrepreneur based in Bahrain, and Doris Martin, CEO of DMartin Consultancy in Bahrain(In the middle).

Shared challenges, shared solutions

The forum’s impact extended beyond the Arab region.

Ayanthi Gurusinghe, President of the Ceylon Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and representative of the South Asian Women Development Forum, attended alongside delegates from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

She said participants exchanged valuable lessons, particularly around access to finance, a challenge faced by women entrepreneurs across regions.

“It was a good opportunity for networking, to come together, share views, learn and exchange experiences,” she said, expressing appreciation to UNIDO for creating a space where global connections could flourish.

Ayanthi Gurusinghe, President of the Ceylon Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and representative of the South Asian Women Development Forum, at WEIF 2026 in Bahrain.

Special focus on artists with disabilities

Beyond panel discussions and networking sessions, the forum also spotlighted inclusive entrepreneurship through three exhibitions including on “Determined Creative Entrepreneur.”

Among the exhibitors was Nisreen Samour of Micro Art Center in Bahrain, which specializes in training and developing artistic talent, with a special focus on artists with disabilities.

“Today, we have about nine students participating, each specializing in an artistic field that aligns with their interests and abilities,” she said.

“I personally train them, and we are currently working on developing their skills and empowering them to produce professional artwork that will help them effectively enter the art market and the job market, thus contributing to increased productivity and the center’s overall performance” she told UN News.

The centre also works with orphans, helping them develop artistic skills and showcase their work publicly — fostering independence and self-reliance through creativity.

 

Nisreen Samour of Micro Art Center in Bahrain, which specializes in training and developing artistic talent, with a special focus on artists with disabilities.

The role of academia

One recurring theme was the role of higher education in preparing young women to enter the world of entrepreneurship.

In an interview with UN News, Dr. Nihal Al-Najjar, professor at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain, highlighted the need to embed entrepreneurship deeply within academic systems.

“Our academic role is to integrate entrepreneurship not just as a subject, but as a methodology,” she said, explaining that experiential learning and practical application are key. “We encourage students to think, innovate and identify gaps in society, and then work to find solutions.”

She added that universities must go beyond classroom teaching by connecting students to the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, guiding them towards mentorship, funding opportunities and professional networks when they are ready to launch their own ventures.

Dina Najar at WEIF2026 in Manama, Bahrain, covering Sustainable Development Goals.

A driving force for sustainable development

The World Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum (WEIF) was preceded by the annual conference of the International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC)—a New York-based NGO that helps women-owned businesses to grow.

Speaking at the conference, UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller described women’s entrepreneurship as a driving force for sustainable development, global innovation and economic inclusion.

“We must ensure that women everywhere have a level playing field and are given the opportunity to unlock their full potential,” he stated, highlighting persistent barriers to finance, technology, and higher-skilled roles for women globally.

Reaffirming UNIDO’s commitment, he added that “empowering women is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”  The 17 SDGs, adopted by governments in 2015, provide a blueprint for a more just and equitable future for all people and the planet.

Mr. Müller praised Bahrain’s leadership in supporting entrepreneurship and women’s economic participation and outlined UNIDO’s ongoing work in crisis-affected countries, noting, “UNIDO has just started working to set up recovery programmes in Syria, Sudan, and Palestine… mostly the women there are affected, and they need our support.”

 

Gerd Müller, Director General of UNIDO, speaking at the International Woman Entrepreneurial Conference in Bahrain 2026.

Women as engines of business

In her opening remarks, IWEC Chair Ibukun Awosika highlighted women’s transformative role as engines of business, leadership, and national progress.

She emphasized that women constitute half of the world’s productive assets and, when empowered, become game changers in corporate and political leadership. Drawing on her own journey, Ms. Awosika recalled building a manufacturing group over 36 years before becoming the first and only woman chair of sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest financial institution, First Bank of Nigeria.

“What women represent to the world is 50 per cent of its assets — productive, constructive assets that are game changers when fully deployed,” she said.

“Every nation that has enough wisdom to invest and to actualize the talent that is in 50 per cent of its population is a country that is set to win.”

 

H.E. Mrs. Ibukun Awo, IWECC Chair, speaking at WEIF2026 in Bahrain.

Success Stories from Bahrain and Nigeria

According to its website, the International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) has recognized 575 distinguished awardees globally, honoured annually at its conferences and nominated by partner organizations, representing women-owned businesses from across the world.

In Bahrain, IWEC recognized a new cohort of awardees from the Middle East and Africa.

Among them was Sonia Mohamed Janahi, founder of Maya La Chocolaterie, who highlighted UNIDO’s role in advancing women’s entrepreneurship.

With UNIDO’s support, Janahi expanded her Bahraini chocolate brand into Africa, establishing a cocoa processing plant in Côte d’Ivoire, creating jobs, promoting ethical supply chains, and ensuring global recognition for African-produced chocolate.

 

Official event photo from WEIF2026 in Manama, Bahrain.

“UNIDO has played a very vital role in my progression. They have taken my project and opened opportunities for me,” she told UN News, underscoring UNIDO’s commitment to recognizing women entrepreneurs across Bahrain, the Middle East, and Africa.

“This event represents women globally and investments over $6 billion that bring women globally together. It awards women who have not just started a business but have sustained a business and scaled up a business and have had an impact on the economy and on the society.”

Also honoured was Nigerian entrepreneur Oluwakelemi, who discussed her gifting and lifestyle retail business, which employs women and supports household incomes across Nigeria while preparing to expand internationally.

“I am passionate about building scalable African businesses with global reach,” she told UN News. “Not less than 5,000 people have been able to benefit from our business, from our work.”

 

 

Eighty years at the heart of global development

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Established in 1945 under the UN Charter, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was designed to ensure that peace and security would be backed by economic stability, social progress and international cooperation.

Eight decades after its first meeting in London in early 1946, ECOSOC remains a central – if often working out of the spotlight – engine of the UN’s work on sustainable development.

A wide remit by design

ECOSOC is the primary forum within the United Nations for policy dialogue on global economic, social and environmental issues, bringing together Member States, UN specialized agencies and other partners to debate priorities, share evidence and agree on collective action.

Its mandate includes coordinating the work of regional economic and social commissions, functional commissions, expert bodies and UN funds and programmes, which deliver development assistance and policy guidance that affect people’s daily lives.

For people unfamiliar with the UN system, what sets ECOSOC apart is its practical reach. It helps guide how the UN responds to disasters, supports countries recovering from crises, and aligns international efforts to reduce poverty, create jobs and protect the environment.

ECOSOC is also responsible for following up on major UN conferences and summits, helping ensure that high-level commitments do not fade once the news cycles move on.

ECOSOC at 80: A milestone for global cooperation and sustainable development

ECOSOC 2026 session at a glance

President: Lok Bahadur Thapa (Nepal)

Elected on 31 July 2025, becoming the first representative of Nepal – a least developed and landlocked developing country – to serve as ECOSOC President.

Presidency priorities: “Delivering better”

  • Transforming agriculture and food systems to strengthen resilience and help end hunger.
  • Digital entrepreneurship and youth engagement, harnessing the potential of youth populations.
  • Climate action and resilience, with a specific focus on risks linked to glacier lakes and flooding.
  • Reforming the international financial architecture to make it more inclusive and responsive.
  • Using the ECOSOC’s 80th anniversary, to reflect on its role and future relevance

Click here to read more.

Evolving with a changing world

Over time, ECOSOC has evolved to meet a changing global landscape. Its membership has expanded from 18 countries at its founding to 54 today, with Member States elected by the General Assembly to overlapping three-year terms that ensure geographical balance.

General Assembly reforms over the past decade have reinforced ECOSOC’s coordinating role within the UN system, sharpening its ability to identify emerging issues, promote innovation and integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

Implementing the SDGs

A key focus of ECOSOC’s current cycle is the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN’s global blueprint to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.

ECOSOC provides political guidance and oversight for this agenda through its annual programme of work, bringing ministers, senior officials, civil society leaders, academics and the private sector together around shared priorities.

At the heart of this work is the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), convened annually under ECOSOC’s auspices. The HLPF reviews progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including voluntary national reports from governments that take stock of progress and challenges.

Discussions at the 2024 session of ECOSOC Youth Forum, the platform where young people can contribute to policy discussions at the United Nations through their collective ideas, solutions and innovations.

Seldom in the headlines

Unlike other main bodies of the Organization, such as the General Assembly and the Security Council, ECOSOC’s meetings seldom make the headlines, but they reflect the complexity of modern global governance.

The humanitarian affairs segment brings together governments and partners each year to strengthen coordination in response to protracted and costly crises.

Other segments – including operational activities, coordination and management – guide the work of UN development agencies, review expert recommendations on topics from public health to geospatial information, and address country-specific or regional concerns requiring focused attention.

A bridge for civil society

ECOSOC also acts as a bridge between the UN and the wider world.

More than 3,200 non-governmental organizations hold consultative status with ECOSOC, giving them a formal channel to contribute expertise and on-the-ground perspectives to debates and decisions. Dedicated forums for youth, scientists, development partners and other stakeholders reflect a recognition that global problems require inclusive solutions that extend beyond governments alone.

Delegates meet during the second session of the Economic and Social Council in May 1946.

80 years old, but as vital as ever

As ECOSOC marks its 80th anniversary on 23 January 2026, its core mission remains unchanged: to foster cooperation in pursuit of shared economic and social progress.

In a world facing intersecting crises – from climate change and inequality to humanitarian emergencies – the Council’s quiet work of coordination and consensus-building continues to shape how the international community responds, and why it still matters to people far beyond UN conference rooms.

Inside the ECOSOC Chamber

A wide view of an ECOSOC meeting on the election of the executive board of a UN agency.

The ECOSOC Chamber at United Nations Headquarters in New York is the principal meeting room where the Council conducts its formal sessions, including high-level segments and ministerial discussions.

Architecturally significant, the Chamber was designed by Swedish architect Sven Markelius and inaugurated in 1952. It was comprehensively renovated in 2013 as part of the UN Capital Master Plan.

The Chamber features several symbolic design elements, including a set of large woven curtains known as Dialogos, intended to evoke dialogue and the exchange of ideas – central to ECOSOC’s role as a forum for consensus-building among governments and global development partners.

One of the most striking features its unfinished ceiling. Exposed pipes and ducts were deliberately left visible to symbolize that the work of the United Nations – and the pursuit of economic and social progress – is never complete, but an ongoing collective effort.

Read more about the ECOSOC Chamber here

 

Click here for our coverage of the Economic and Social Council.

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Putting people at the heart of cities, key to improving urban life

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Yet, amid this rapid transformation, one question rises above all: how can innovation truly serve the people, as more and more of them migrate to cities?

That question lies at the heart of this year’s World Cities Day, which will be celebrated in Bogotá, Colombia, under the theme People-Centred Smart Cities.

Organized by the UN’s urban agency, UN-Habitat, the event brings together mayors, experts on city life and community leaders from around the world to explore how data, design, and digital tools can build communities that are not only smarter, but also fairer, greener, and more inclusive.

By 2050, nearly 70 per cent of humanity is expected to live in urban areas, intensifying demands for housing, services, and climate resilience.

In his message for the day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that innovation must close gaps, not widen them.

“A truly smart city puts people first, especially the most vulnerable,” Mr. Guterres said. “When we place people at the centre, digital innovation can help drive fairness and sustainability for all.”

Bogotá’s big experiment 

Bogotá, long known for urban experimentation, has earned global recognition for combining technology with citizen engagement.

From TransMilenio, its influential bus rapid transit system, to Ciclovía, which turns streets into car-free community spaces every Sunday, the city has redefined how urban design can foster social connection and sustainability.

For Elkin Velásquez, UN-Habitat’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bogotá offers a compelling example of how data and dialogue can shape better futures.

“The global observance here will foster international dialogue on people-centred smart cities — where technology enhances quality of life and strengthens community bonds,” he said.

© Unsplash/Delaney Turner

Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city.

Listening to the city

Among the keynote speakers in Bogotá is Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer, and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab in the United States, as well as curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Mr. Ratti, one of the world’s leading thinkers on urban innovation, believes that cities must evolve beyond the notion of the “smart city” toward what he calls the “senseable city.”

“I’m not fond of the term ‘smart city,’” Mr. Ratti said. “It often implies a top-down system guided by technology alone. Cities must first and foremost be about people — responsive, inclusive, and adaptive. A ‘senseable city’ uses technology not for its own sake, but to better listen to and serve its citizens.”

For Mr. Ratti, Bogotá embodies this spirit. “It has long intrigued me as a leading city for urban experimentation,” he said. “Projects like TransMilenio and Ciclovía have become global case studies.

“They show how local interventions, when scaled and embraced, can shift urban trajectories.”

On principle, Mr. Ratti believes that in an age of climate emergency and demographic transition, “the most radical act may be not to build or build differently”. As an alternative, he suggests prioritizing reuse, retrofitting, and transformation.

“And if you truly need to build on greenfield sites, learn from the logic of nature. In terms of energy and circularity, a tree is still much smarter than any building we can design”, he concluded. 

A people-centred vision

According to Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, the city’s approach exemplifies what a people-centred smart city should look like.

“In Bogotá, the smart cities approach is people-centered, aiming to improve well-being and quality of life,” Ms. Rossbach said.

“Programmes like Ecobarrios and Mi Casa focus on resilience and sustainability, while digital initiatives such as Chatico, a virtual agent, use Artificial Intelligence to help citizens access information on public services and participate in consultations.”

These initiatives, she explained, represent a broader effort to advance sustainable mobility, data-driven policymaking, and bridge the digital divide.

© Bogota Mayor’s Office/Cristia

Bogotá, Colombia, is recognized as a leader in smart city initiatives, with a focus on digital transformation, mobility, and urban sustainability.

“These are good examples of technology and innovation that serve people and communities,” Ms. Rossbach added. “It’s vital that such experiences are shared globally, allowing other cities to adapt these lessons to their own contexts.”

A global conversation

World Cities Day marks the conclusion of Urban October, UN-Habitat’s month-long campaign for sustainable and inclusive urbanization. This year’s observance in Bogotá aims to leave behind a legacy, one built on collaboration, learning, and shared commitment to a more equitable urban future.

“The legacy we seek is twofold,” Ms. Rossbach concluded. “First, to showcase the creativity of cities in advancing people-centred smart approaches. And second, to strengthen the networks of cooperation that ensure innovation serves people, and not the other way around.”

As digital tools become ever more embedded in urban life, the challenge for cities is clear: to ensure that smart solutions remain human ones.
 

Home is where the heart is — and where development begins

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Mathare, one of the country’s largest slums, houses upwards of 500,000 people in five square kilometres, cramming them together and storing the human waste they produce in uncovered rivulets. But when he recounted the visit later to UN News, this was not the image that stuck with him the most.  

Without formal sewage systems, rivulets in the Mathare slum in Nairobi hold human waste.

What he remembered most clearly was a group of boys and girls, dressed in navy blue school uniforms — the girls in skirts and the boys in pants, both with miniature ties underneath their vests — surrounded by squawking chickens and human waste.  

There was no formal, or UNICEF-funded, school nearby. But the Mathare community had come together to create a school where their children might just have the chance to break an intergenerational cycle of poverty and invisibility.

“That was a message for me that development should be localized. There is something happening at the community [level],” said Mr. Jobin.

Globally, over one billion people live in overcrowded slums or informal settlements with inadequate housing, making this one of the largest development issues worldwide, but also one of the most underrecognized.  

“The first place where opportunity begins or is denied is not an office building or a school. It is in our homes,” UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a high-level meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Tuesday.    

A litmus test

Mr. Jobin was one of the experts taking part in the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development at UN Headquarters in New York this month to discuss progress – or lack thereof – towards the globally agreed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

One of the goals aspires to create sustainable cities and communities. However, with close to three billion people facing an affordable housing crisis, this goal remains unrealized.

“Housing has become a litmus test of our social contract and a powerful measure of whether development is genuinely reaching people or quietly bypassing them,” said Rola Dashti, Under-Secretary-General for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).  

Housing as a mirror for inequalities

An apartment building at an informal settlement in Mumbai, India.

With over 300 million unhoused people worldwide, sometimes it is easy to forget about the one billion people who are housed but inadequately. These people, who populate informal settlements and slums, live in unstable dwellings and in communities where few services are provided.  

“Housing reflects the inequalities shaping people’s daily lives. It signals who has access to stability, security and opportunity and who does not,” said Ms. Dashti.

Children living in slums or informal settlements are up to three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday. They are also 45 per cent more stunted than their peers as a result of poor nutrition.  

Women and girls are more likely to experience gender-based violence. And human trafficking and child exploitation are also more prevalent.  

An intergenerational invisibility

People in informal settlements are often not a part of the national census, according to Mr. Jobin, meaning that they are not taken into consideration in policies, social programmes or budgets. Even if they were given social protections, these settlements rarely have addresses at which families could receive cash transfers.  

This is why experts often say that the people living in informal settlements and slums are invisible in official data and programmes.

“You’re born from an invisible family, so you become invisible,” Mr. Jobin said. “You don’t exist. You’re not reflected in policies or budgeting.”

This invisibility makes it almost impossible to escape poverty.  

“You become a prisoner of a vicious circle that entertains itself and then you reproduce yourself to your kid,” he said, referring to an inescapable cycle of deprivation.

The urban paradox

More and more people are migrating into urban centres, leading to the growth of these informal settlements. And with their growth, comes more urgency to address the issues.  

The World Bank estimates that 1.2 million people each week move to cities, often seeking the opportunities and resources that they offer. But millions of people are never able to benefit, instead becoming forgotten endnotes in an urban paradox that portrays urban wealth as a protection against poverty.  

By 2050, the number of people living in informal settlements is expected to triple to three billion, one-third of whom will be children. Over 90 per cent of this growth will occur in Asia and Africa.  

“These statistics are not just numbers — they represent families, they represent workers and entire communities being left behind,” said Anacláudia Rossbach, Under-Secretary-General of UN Habitat which is working to make cities more sustainable.  

The Mathare slum in Nairobi houses 500,000 people within 5 square kilometres.

Housing as a human right

It is not just national and local governments which struggle to contend with informal settlements — organizations like UNICEF are also “blind”, Mr. Jobin said, regarding the scope of problems in informal settlements.  

Development partners face twin issues in designing interventions — there is not enough national data and informal governance, or slum lords, can be more critical for coordinating programs than traditional governmental partners.

“We know the issue …  But somehow we have not really been able to intervene,” he said.

Ms. Mohammed emphasized that we need to begin to see adequate and affordable housing as more than just a result of development — it is the foundation upon which all other development must rest.  

“Housing is not simply about a roof over one’s head. It’s a fundamental human right and the foundation upon which peace and stability itself rests.” 

Goodbye, login. Hello, heart scan

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Forget fingerprint computer identification or retinal scanning. A University at Buffalo-led team has developed a computer security system using the dimensions of your heart as your identifier.

The system uses low-level Doppler radar to measure your heart, and then continually monitors your heart to make sure no one else has stepped in to run your computer.

The technology is described in a paper that the inventors will present at next month’s 23rd Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Communication (MobiCom) in Utah. The system is a safe and potentially more effective alternative to passwords and other biometric identifiers, they say. It may eventually be used for smartphones and at airport screening barricades.

“We would like to use it for every computer because everyone needs privacy,” said Wenyao Xu, PhD, the study’s lead author, and an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

“Logging-in and logging-out are tedious,” he said.

The signal strength of the system’s radar “is much less than Wi-Fi,” and therefore does not pose any health threat, Xu said.

“We are living in a Wi-Fi surrounding environment every day, and the new system is as safe as those Wi-Fi devices,” he said. “The reader is about 5 milliwatts, even less than 1 percent of the radiation from our smartphones.”

The system needs about 8 seconds to scan a heart the first time, and thereafter the monitor can continuously recognize that heart.

The system, which was three years in the making, uses the geometry of the heart, its shape and size, and how it moves to make an identification. “No two people with identical hearts have ever been found,” Xu said. And people’s hearts do not change shape, unless they suffer from serious heart disease, he said.

Heart-based biometrics systems have been used for almost a decade, primarily with electrodes measuring electrocardiogram signals, “but no one has done a non-contact remote device to characterize our hearts’ geometry traits for identification,” he said.

The new system has several advantages over current biometric tools, like fingerprints and retinal scans, Xu said. First, it is a passive, non-contact device, so users are not bothered with authenticating themselves whenever they log-in. And second, it monitors users constantly. This means the computer will not operate if a different person is in front of it. Therefore, people do not have to remember to log-off when away from their computers.

Xu plans to miniaturize the system and have it installed onto the corners of computer keyboards. The system could also be used for user identification on cell phones. For airport identification, a device could monitor a person up to 30 meters away.

Xu and collaborators will present the paper — “Cardiac Scan: A Non-contact and Continuous Heart-based User Authentication System” — at MobiCom, which is billed as the flagship conference in mobile computing. Organized by the Association for Computing Machinery, the conferernce will be held from Oct. 16-20 in Snowbird, Utah.

Additional authors are, from the UB Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Feng Lin, PhD (now an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver); Chen Song, a PhD student; Yan Zhuang, a master’s student; and Kui Ren, PhD, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor; and from Texas Tech University, Changzhi Li, PhD.

A ‘virtual heart’ to simulate arrhythmia

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A group of researchers from MIPT and Ghent University (Belgium) has developed the first realistic model able to reproduce the complexity of the cardiac microstructure. The researchers hope that the model will help them better understand the causes of fibrosis which affects the onset of cardiac arrhythmias. Although the model is currently only able to simulate one layer of cardiac cells, electrical wave propagation observed in the simulations was the same as in the experimental tissues. The paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Nina Kudryashova, a Ph.D. student at MIPT and a co-author of the study, comments: “The chances of developing arrhythmia tend to increase with age, which is partly due to fibrosis. Unfortunately, we can only observe a fully developed clinical picture and not the process of arrhythmia development itself. That is why we have proposed a mathematical model which is able to determine the factors responsible for the formation of different fibrosis patterns.”

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases account for the highest number of deaths globally. Around 40% of these deaths occur suddenly and are caused by arrhythmia, a group of conditions in which the heartbeat is irregular. Contractions of the heart are initiated by the propagation of electrical waves in cardiac tissue. Although the tissue is made up of different types of cells, it is cardiomyocytes (CMs) that perform the electromechanical function of the heart. In addition to CMs, cardiac tissue contains non-excitable cells, i.e., cells incapable of electrical excitation, such as fibroblasts (FBs). The formation of excess fibrous connective tissue is called fibrosis; it affects wave propagation and often leads to arrhythmia. Despite the fact that it is impossible to observe the stages of arrhythmia development/progression, computer modeling of cardiac tissue could provide new opportunities to study the relation between cardiac tissue morphology and arrhythmia development.

In order to build a reliable and accurate model, the researchers collected experimental data on cell shapes. For this purpose, cardiac cells, namely CMs and FBs, were cultured under different conditions. All in all, four cases were considered in the study: Non-interacting (isolated) cells with and without nanofibres and monolayers with and without nanofibres. When grown on a scaffold of nanofibers, the cells are forced to elongate in one direction, which allows a better reproduction of the texture of cardiac muscle tissue. As a result, the researchers obtained statistical data on the shapes of FBs and CMs and their interaction.

Valeriya Tsvelaya, a Ph.D. student and another co-author of the study, explains: “Since cardiac tissue cells are elongated along the fibrous substrate, the tissue exhibits anisotropy, which is when electrical waves propagate differently depending on the propagation direction. When wave propagation is directionally independent (such as in the case of non-nanofibrous monolayer substrates), isotropy is observed.”

To reproduce the formation of cardiac tissue, the researchers took a mathematical model — one that is widely applied to study tissue growth — and optimized it using the collected experimental data. The model they obtained provided a detailed and accurate reproduction of cell shape parameters in each of the four cases. In order to observe excitation wave propagation, the researchers stimulated the cells in the culture with an electrode. They also imitated wave propagation in virtual cardiac tissue and discovered that the wave propagation pattern accurately reproduced the experimentally observed behavior for both isotropic and anisotropic cases. This means that the proposed model can indeed be used to study cardiac tissue properties and various risk factors for arrhythmias.

Attempts to simulate wave propagation in cardiac tissue had been made before, but those were simple models which did not reproduce the complexity of cell shapes. Besides, FBs in all the previously performed simulations were arranged in a random way, while in reality CMs and FBs are arranged in a pattern arising from the peculiarities of their interaction. In their model, the researchers considered both the shapes and the interaction between the cells, thus making their computer simulations more accurate and realistic.

“The model we proposed can predict the same wave propagation patterns we observed in our experimental samples, which means it can be used to help us learn to predict the probability with which a patient will develop arrhythmia. You just vary the conditions under which a tissue is formed and see what the chances of developing arrhythmia in this tissue are,” explains Konstantin Agladze, head of the Laboratory of Biophysics of Excitable Systems at MIPT.

That said, the model is currently in the initial stage of development. There are a number of factors to be considered, such as cell migration, all of which can influence tissue development. Besides, the heart is three-dimensional while the model is two-dimensional, which means the researchers still need to work out how to make it 3-D. Achieving this will open up new possibilities of describing tissues in living organisms.

Kidney, Heart Transplants On Rise

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As per the data available with National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), 54, 110, 235 and 190 heart transplants and 720, 1024, 1368 and 805 kidney transplants have been undertaken in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. The State/UT wise details of heart and kidney transplants are given below:

 

S.No. States 2014   2015   2016   2017  
Heart Kidney   Heart Kidney   Heart Kidney   Heart Kidney  
1 Tamilnadu 41 227   51 290   100 339   Consolidate data for year 2017 Consolidate data for year 2017  
2 Kerala 6 104   14 132   18 113    
3 Maharashtra 0 89   5 106   34 229    
4 Telangana & Andhra Pradesh 1 92   19 168   15 182    
  Andhra Pradesh x x   x x   18 87    
5 Karnataka 5 72   11 91   14 142    
6 Gujarat 0 55   0 77   4 83    
7 Madhya Pradesh x x   1 6   7 28    
8 Uttar Pradesh 0 14   0 8   1 16    
9 Delhi /NCR 0 32   6 45   18 62    
10 Puducherry 0 26   1 18   1 20    
11 Chandigarh 1 9   1 69   2 51    
12 Rajasthan x x   1 14   3 16    
  Total 54 720   110 1024   235 1368   190 805  

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.