Draft:Virtual Population

"Project title NEUROMAN: Functionalized Anatomical Models for Studying EM-Neuronal Dynamic Interactions". ARAMIS. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2026.

• Comment: No solid evidence this particular computational model is notable. The sources are all discussing various research projects or applications of Virtual Population, not Virtual Population itself. Secondary coverage of the subject itself is needed. WeirdNAnnoyed (talk) 13:06, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

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The Virtual Population (ViP) is a collection of anatomical computational models of humans and animals created developed collaboratively by the Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT'IS), a research institute in Zurich, Switzerland and the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA).^[1] The models – which are designed for use in computational simulations involving biological tissues, particularly for biomedical research and regulatory assessment – have been incorporated into the Sim4Life computational simulation platform developed by ZMT Zurich MedTech AG (ZMT) in partnership with IT'IS. The ViP models have also been integrated into the open-source o²S²PARC platform developed as part of the "Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions" (SPARC)^[2] program of the National Institutes of Health Common Fund to enable collaborative, reproducible, and sustainable computational neurosciences.

The Virtual Population (ViP) is a set of whole-body anatomical human phantoms used in computational simulations to study interactions between biological tissues and electromagnetic (EM) fields. Applications span wireless technology testing, medical device evaluation, radiology safety, and tissue engineering. The collection includes whole-body computational phantoms, specific organ phantoms, and whole-body models of animals and animal tissues from species used in preclinical studies.

As part of the ViP, the IT'IS Foundation maintains a database of tissue properties — such as EM, thermal, fluid, acoustic, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics — to support parameter assignment in simulations. The database is regularly updated and can be used with the Sim4Life simulation software platform.

The first ViP models, referred to as the Virtual Family, included two adults and two children based on high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.^[3] These "Version 1.x" models have been made available to the scientific community free-of-charge.^[4]

The ViP collection has grown to include a broader age and sex range and higher anatomical detail with the expansion of the Virtual Family into the Virtual Population, which includes models of both sexes ranging in age from 5 to 84 years old,^[1] used to evaluate the safety of diagnostic and therapeutic applications,^[5] including assessments of medical implant safety.^[6]

Models of specific organs have been developed. The ViP hand library consists of 12 computational right-hand models of different sizes and ages extracted from the full-body ViP models. The Ella Breast Coil model is a modified version of the "Ella" model used in applications such as safety assessments and the design of specialized MRI coils for breast tissue scanning.^[7]

Notable collaborative developments include:

• The MIDA model of the head and neck^[8] was co-developed with the US FDA and segmented from the IXI dataset.^[9] These models offer detailed representations of eyes, deep brain structures, scalp layers, blood vessels, and salivary glands.
• Korean Virtual Population models, made in collaboration between the IT'IS Foundation and Korean research teams using cryosection images to create models for neuronal interaction studies.

Methods for generation of unstructured meshes with geometrically and topologically compatible interfaces from the segmented cross-sections of the ViP models were developed for the purpose of large-scale whole-body simulations.^[10] Finite element method (FEM) simulations, whereby the body is treated as a deformable hyperelastic material with rigid bones for variable posing, were used to enable adaptive posture adjustment. The models were also made morphable to allow simulation of weight gain or loss through changes in the distribution of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and enable variation in body mass index (BMI).^[11] The introduction of combined morphing and posing of computational models may allow in silico methods to be used to improve the accuracy of estimating exposure to radiofrequency (RF) fields during MRI scanning.^[12]

The ViP models have also been functionalized to account for physiology-related changes in shape^[13]– e.g., breathing and blood flow^[14] or aspects such as tissue thermoregulation.^[15] Poseable ViP models were used, for example, in simulations to study the influence of anatomy and posture on exposure to induction cooktops,^[16] with the conductivities of the human tissues exposed assigned according to the Tissue Properties database.^[17]

Use cases of the ViP in computational life sciences (CLS) include:

• Design and evaluation of medical imaging hardware, including the magnetic field gradient coils and RF transmitter and receiver coils used in MRI scanners^[18]
• Simulation of exposure of the human body to MRI-induced RF fields to predict how tissues near implanted metallic devices become heated^[19]
• Simulations to assess how the EM fields emitted by high risk active implanted medical devices (AIMDs) interact with biological tissues^[20]
• Simulation of human exposure to EM fields emitted wireless devices for evaluation of compliance with safety regulations^[21]
• Assessment of the interactions of EM fields emitted by telecommunication apparatus with biological tissues^[22]
• Simulations of internal deposition of EM energy in personalized anatomies^[23]

The IT'IS Foundation maintains a list of papers in which the Virtual Population models have been used or cited, including publications by in house authors as well as from other research groups.^[24] A selected list of research findings published by users of the ViP models is also available at the Sim4Life website.^[25]

Korean Virtual Population models – male model "Jeduk" and female model "Yoon-sun" – were developed by the IT’IS Foundation and the Visible Korean Human (VKH) project^[26] as part of the Swiss-Korean collaborative project NEUROMAN: Functionalized Anatomical Models for Studying EM-Neuronal Dynamic Interactions.^[27] The ViP model "Eddie" is also based on high-resolution cryosection images obtained from the Visible Human Project of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). Additional models hosted by the IT'IS Foundation include phantoms based on the Visible Human Project that cover various ages, sexes, and developmental stages.

Hosted models MARTIN and ATHENA were developed in cooperation with the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. These models, the use of which is free-of-charge (aside from handling fees), are detailed computational models of a 29-month-old boy and a 3 1/2 year old girl.

The ViP project of the IT'IS Foundation hosts the Breast Tumor Patient Models (BTPM) Repository, containing 22 breast models developed at the Erasmus University Medical Center, segmented into 6 tissue types: skin, bone, muscle, tumor, fibroglandular tissue, and fat.^[28] The generation of the 3D models of breast tissues contained in the repository was performed in Sim4Life.

Computational anatomical models developed by other researchers are also hosted.^[29]

The specifications of the full-body human models are listed here.

Model	Sex	Age (y)	Height (m)1	Weight (kg)1	BMI (kg/m²)1
Duke	male	34	1.77	70.2	22.4
Ella	female	26	1.63	57.3	21.6
Billie	female	11	1.49	34.0	15.3
Thelonious	male	6	1.16	18.6	13.8
Glenn	male	84	1.73	61.1	20.4
Fats	male	37	1.82	119	36
Louis	male	14	1.68	49.7	17.6
Eartha	female	8	1.36	29.9	16.2
Dizzy	male	8	1.37	25.3	13.5
Roberta	female	5	1.09	17.8	14.9
Nina2	female	3	0.92	13.9	16.4
Charlie2	female	8 weeks	N/A	4.3	N/A
Pregnant woman I2,3	N/A	3 months (in utero)	N/A	0.015	N/A
Pregnant woman II2,3	N/A	7 months (in utero)	N/A	1.4	N/A
Pregnant woman III2,3	female	9 months (in utero)	N/A	2.7	N/A
Jeduk	male	33	1.62	64.5	24.6
Yoon-sun	female	26	1.52	54.6	23.6
Eddie	male	38	1.81	106.0	32.4
MARTIN	male	29 months	0.86	13.0	17.6
ATHENA	female	3.5	0.95	14.7	16.3

¹ Height, weight, and BMI values are based on the latest versions of the models and of the tissue properties database. ² These models are available only as Version 1.x. ³ The pregnant woman models are based on the Ella model; the specifications listed are those of the fetus.

In addition to human computational models, the IT'IS Foundation developed the Virtual Zoo (ViZoo) – a collection of high-resolution anatomical animal models created from MRI or cryosection image data. These computational animal phantoms are used in in silico biophysical simulations to reproduce and analyze results from in vivo animal experiments, with the aim to reduce the need to use laboratory animals. The ViZoo models include mouse and rat models of both sexes at various developmental stages, a male pig, and a female Rhesus macaque (developed as part of the NEUROMAN project). A special rat model with neuro-functionalized nerve trajectories – known as the "NeuroRat" – has also been released.

Name	Sex	Type	Length (mm, without tail)	Weight (g)
"Miss Able" Female Monkey	female	Rhesus macaque	740	4900
Male Pig	male	Domestic Pig	977	35000
NeuroRat	male	Dark Agouti	150	150
Big Male Rat	male	Sprague Dawley	260	567
Small Male Rat	male	Sprague Dawley	185	198
Female Rat with Tumors	female	Sprague Dawley	225	503
Pregnant Rat	female	Sprague Dawley	170	275
Rat Pup	undefined	Sprague Dawley	93 (with tail)	14.3
Male PIM1 Mouse	male	PIM1	98	44.7
Male OF1 Mouse	male	OF1	95	35.5
Female OF1 Mouse	female	OF1	78	17.3
Pregnant Mouse	female	B6C3F1	72	28.7
"Diggy" Male Nude Normal Mouse	male	Nude Normal	86	28
Pregnant Mouse	female	C57BL/6N	160	38
3 Week Male Mouse	male	B6C3F1	70	12.3
12 Week Female Mouse	female	B6C3F1	80	22.3
12 Week Male Mouse	male	B6C3F1	90	27.4

The ViP human phantoms and Virtual Zoo (ViZoo) animal phantoms are integrated in the Sim4Life computational simulation platform.

• Virtual Population webpage at the IT'IS Foundation website
• Zurich MedTech AG website