Participation in the Cardiac Dynamics research program organised by Kavli Iinstitute for Theoretical Physics, summer 2006.

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Cardiac disease is a major cause of premature death. More than half ofcardiac disease deaths are sudden and result from a spatiotemporalchaotic wave activity that prevents the main chambers of the heartfrom pumping blood normally (ventricular fibrillation). Developing afundamental understanding of the mechanisms that trigger and maintainlife-threatening cardiac arrhythmias is crucially important fordesigning antiarrhythmic therapies to reduce mortality.Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California inSanta Barbara, runs Cardiac Dynamics ``miniprogram'' in the summer 2006. The goal of the program is to bring together aninterdisciplinary group of theorists, experimentalists and clinicianswith common interests in arrhythmogenesis. The program is expected toprovide a unique forum to foster collaborations that will lead to theintegration of new knowledge of biology and nonlinear dynamics inextended media and to the application of this knowledge to controlcardiac arrhythmias and to prevent sudden cardiac death in a clinicalsetting.I am one of 35 participants of the program confirmed to date, and of only 18invited to stay for its full duration. The topics to be covered by theprogram are highly relevant to the above mentioned my two currentlyactive EPSRC projects, GR/D500338/01``Feedback control of resonant drift as a tool for low voltage defibrillation''andEP/D0747891/1 ``Response functions for drift of spiral and scroll waves''.Both of the projects are to bringthe mathematical theory of re-entrant tachycardiacloser to real physiology and clinical applications. The KITP ``Cardiac Dynamics'' research program provides a unique opportunity to meet in a creative environment with world leading experimentalists, informally present and discuss key directions in the area, and formulate interesting problems for further research. The attached invitation from KITP promises to cover part ofmy local expenses, and not any travel expenses. As the invitation came after my most recent grant, EP/D0747891/1, applicationhad been submitted, expenses for the KITP program were notanticipated in either of the existing grant budgets, hence this application.