Soft tissue biomechanics; mechanics-based imaging diagnostics; numerical biomodeling
My interests lie at the intersection of cardiac and pulmonary imaging diagnostics, the experimental and computational modeling of soft tissue mechanics, and animal models of vascular remodeling. I currently focus these three broad topics on examining the development, diagnosis, and progression of pulmonary hypertension. Animal models of the disease have allowed me to make detailed comparisons amongst hemodynamics and vascular mechanics that are impossible to obtain in clinical studies, and are beginning to address how individual extracelluar matrix components of the pulmonary vessels contribute to right heart (RV) afterload. Simple computational studies of the pulmonary vasculature are clarifying the impacts of vascular stiffness in different stages of the disease and in treatment, while analytic models are enabling the creation of novel clinical diagnostics. Finally, translating knowledge gained from these components to clinically-relevant measurements promises to improve disease prognosis.