Fatigue is often referred to as an overwhelming sense of exhaustion or tiredness and lack of energy. It is a complex phenomenon, classified in terms of duration and effects (cognitive/physical).
It is a common and debilitating, non-specific symptom of many neurological, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular conditions, and suffered by cancer and stroke survivors, and those recovering from viral infections. It also increases with ageing and frailty.
Despite the large number of health conditions accompanied with fatigue, there are currently no official treatment recommendations, except self-managed lifestyle changes.
This makes it an important problem for which new treatment approaches will have significant health benefits. It has recently been suggested that interactions between status and functioning of several physiological systems underpin chronic fatigue. This and the lack of treatment options reflects the complex and multi-factorial nature of fatigue, highlighting it as a problem requiring multiscale and multimodal research approaches to solve.
Our overarching aim is to:
- Elucidate physiological mechanisms underlying physical fatigue using AI-enabled, physiology-informed biophysical modelling.
Drawing on our expertise, the proposed research focuses on physical fatigue and potential issues within the neuro-motor system by developing biophysically detailed computational and mathematical models for each subcellular component of the skeletal muscle system.