BME Seminar Speakers Series: Valerie Tutwiler

Description

Valerie Tutwiler, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University, will give a talk titled "Biomechanics of Blood Clots" as part of the Biomedical Engineering Seminar Speakers Series. Assistant Professor Lakshmi Santhanam will host.

This is a hybrid event; please attend the event virtually by using the Zoom link (Meeting ID: 972 8579 3783 | Passcode: 489643). It will also be broadcast in Clark 110.

Abstract:

Diseases of the cardiovascular and circulatory systems are leading causes of death worldwide; we focus on the critical role that blood clotting plays in these diseases. For example, excessive blood clotting can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Fibrin is an extracellular matrix protein and a major component of blood clots that form at the sites of injury to stop bleeding (hemostasis) and of pathological thrombi that form inside vessels and block the blood flow (thrombosis). Fibrin's mechanical properties underlie blood clot behavior in the highly dynamic intra- and extravascular environment. Moreover, there is a rapidly developing field of bioengineering that uses fibrin as a versatile biomaterial with exceptional and tunable mechanical properties. It is critically important that the fibrin gel is mechanically tough and resistant to rupture, as it must be able to prevent bleeding while withstanding forces of blood flow, dynamic pressure of extravascular muscle contractions, pulsations of blood vessel walls, and tensile forces generated by the contracting platelets. Moreover, the fibrin network must be able to resist enzymatic degradation when needed and susceptible to depredation when no longer needed. We take a multidisciplinary approach, combining experiments and mathematical modeling, to examine how the structure of the fibrin network influences the viscoelastic mechanics, fracture mechanics, and enzymatic stability of fibrin blood clots with respect to bleeding following traumatic injury or thrombosis. Mechanical testing is coupled with microstructural studies to characterize clot structure, clot formation, and enzymatic degradation. Gaining a deeper understanding of fibrin structural, mechanical, and enzymatic stability is fundamentally important for the development of novel therapeutics and diagnostics.