Rachel Buchanan, a biomedical engineering graduate student working with Professor Michael Sacks in the Center for Cardiovascular Simulation in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, took first place in the doctoral student paper competition in the cardiovascular biomechanics category at the 7th World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston.
Rachel Buchanan, a biomedical engineering graduate student working with Professor Michael Sacks in the Center for Cardiovascular Simulation in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, took first place in the doctoral student paper competition in the cardiovascular biomechanics category at the 7th World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston.
Buchanan's winning paper is titled "In Situ Estimation of Aortic Valve Interstitial Cell Mechanical State From Tissue Level Measurements," and it was one of over 700 entries submitted. Out of that 700, just 36 were chosen for oral presentations in six categories.
Her research focuses on using tissue-level experimental data to develop an inverse biomechanical model of the interstitial cells present in the aortic valve. According to Buchanan, understanding the cells' biophysical state, especially their stiffness and contraction, is important because heart valve conditions often manifest themselves at the cellular level before showing sign of disease that a patient can perceive. Valve calcification is a condition at the forefront of the research.
"In the aortic valve the most common pathology is calcification...and changes in the biophysical state of the cell is an indicator of when the disease starts," Buchanan said. "However, you can't directly measure what's going on with the cells in their native tissue environment. You have to have a computational model."
The current simulation depicts a representative sample of valve tissue as it would behave in the human body, complete with cell arrangements and biomechanical behavior across the valve tissue's various layers. Tests are performed on 3-D samples kept at body temperature in conditions that are as lifelike as possible.
The World Congress of Biomechanics is an international meeting held once every four years, rotating among Europe, Asia and the Americas, bringing together engineers and scientists from various disciplines including biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and various clinical specialties for in-depth discussions and presentations.
