- This event has passed.
BioE Seminar Series Presents: Victor Baracos
October 20, 2021 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Victor Barocas, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
“Computer Modeling of Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, or How I Learned Accept Change, Variability, and Failure as a Part of Life”
Wednesday, October 20th, 2021
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
ABSTRACT:
Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm (ATAA), a condition in which the section of the aorta immediately adjacent to the heart becomes enlarged, presents a major clinical challenge. The disease is largely asymptomatic and harmless unless the tissue dissects or ruptures, in which case severe consequences almost always ensue. Repair surgery is costly and carries a 2-4% chance of patient mortality. The challenge, then, is to decide whether to perform the surgery when the patient might be just fine without it. Current guidelines are based primarily on aneurysm size, but numerous other potential biomarkers exist, including other geometric measures, mechanical measures, genetic factors, and biofluidic factors; some of these are directly attainable in the clinic, and others are attainable through patient specific computer models. Our group is exploring ATAA with a combination of computer and experimental models in hope of identifying better ways to assess patient risk. The seminar will discuss computer models at both the tissue and the structural scale, how they relate to experimental studies, and where I see us and the field going in the future
BIOGRAPHY:
Victor Barocas is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he has taught since 2000. His research focuses on soft-tissue biomechanics, with applications in the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Experimental work focuses on novel techniques to measure tissue mechanical properties, particularly in heterogeneous tissues, and his computational work focuses on structural and multiscale models of tissue mechanics. He has served for the last ten years as co-Editor-in-Chief of the ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
Interested in attending? Email Liz at e.chesley@northeastern.edu for the Zoom link.