Tag: Human Organ Atlas

New 3D map of the electrical wiring of the heart to help patients with congenital heart disease

New 3D map of the electrical wiring of the heart to help patients with congenital heart disease

Researchers from UCL (University College London) and the ESRF (The European Synchrotron) have produced the first three-dimensional map of the heart’s electrical wiring in Tetralogy of Fallot, one of the most common congenital heart problems, revealing anatomical features that may explain why many patients develop heart conduction disorders in this condition. The research, part of the Human Organ Atlas international collaboration, can be used for surgical training and lead to even better outcomes for patients. The research is out in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Congenital heart disease affects around 1% of the population worldwide. In many cases, babies must undergo life-saving heart surgery shortly after birth. Although survival rates are now high, many patients develop complications later in life, particularly abnormal heart rhythms or contraction patterns. Surgeons have long known that these problems can arise when the heart’s delicate electrical conduction system, which is invisible during surgery, is disturbed.

Andrew Cook, professor of Cardiac anatomy at UCL and senior author of the study, explains: “I often compare it to renovating a house: you wouldn’t want to start drilling into a wall without knowing where the electrical wires are. The same principle applies to the heart”. Instead, surgeons use ‘anatomical landmarks’ and these have now been revised in the study.

This research is part of the Human Organ Atlas international collaboration. The Atlas is powered by an advanced imaging method called Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, by an international team led by University College London (UCL), UK to visualise anatomy in unprecedented detail.

Read more on the ESRF website

Image: Rendering of a heart with Tetralogy of Fallot showing the septal defect.

Credit: Joseph Brunet, Cinematic Anatomy (Siemens Healthineers)

Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair wins the Lennart Nilsson Prize

Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair wins the Lennart Nilsson Prize

ESRF user and Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair Professor Maximilian  Ackermann, from the RWTH University Aachen, University Mainz and Helios University Clinics Wuppertal, has been awarded the Lennart Nilsson Prize 2025 by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm for his artistic images of human anatomy and pathology using notably the technique of Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT) at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France.

The Lennart Nilsson Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards in the field of scientific photography, recognises Ackermann’s achievements in the use of novel, unique high-resolution imaging techniques, and especially the use of Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the ESRF, as well as his artistic view of the human anatomy and its pathological changes.

A pathologist at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen and Helios University Clinics Wuppertal and anatomist at the University Mainz, Ackermann is also co-chair of the Human Organ Atlas hub, where scientists and clinicians use HiP-CT technique at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) to provide valuable insights into human anatomy and diseases such as Covid-19, pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. A compendium of his artistic renderings of the human anatomy and numerous diseases can be found on the website PATHart.org.

The Human Organ Atlas Hub (HOAHub) is an international interdisciplinary scientific collaboration led by University College London (UCL) and the European Synchrotron (ESRF), with the University Medical Center Mainz, and the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. Funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, it aims to create a physical and virtual Hub that uses a novel technique developed at the ESRF, HiP-CT, to scan whole human organs with local cellular resolution, producing a “Human Organ Atlas in Health, Ageing and Disease“.

Read more on ESRF website

Image: The coloured scanning electron micrograph of a human lung with COVID19 infection shows numerous alveoli with inflammatory cells (yellow), hemorrhages (red) and hyaline membranes (blue).

 Credit: M. Ackermann