Cyclical dynamic expansion and contraction are essential to the life-sustaining function of organs, including the heart. These continuous movements coupled with complex tissue architecture and composite mechanical properties pose considerable challenges to augmenting impaired organ function. My research is providing approaches to overcome those challenges, by blending principles of pathophysiology, biomechanics and mechanical engineering with state-of-the-art materials and robotics.
In this talk I will speak about developing physiologically realistic in vitro, in vivo, ex vivo and in silico approaches suitable for testing cardiac device technologies. I will review my group’s overarching approach to designing these technologies. I will discuss the potential impact of our work, and how co-designing multimodal simulation models with clinical and industrial partners can not only lead to enhanced implantable device design and testing, but also to further understanding of the fundamental mechanical influencers of pathophysiology and intervention strategies.
Ellen Roche is the Latham Family Career Development Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. She directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab. Her research focuses on applying innovative technologies to the development of cardiac devices. Her research includes development of novel devices to repair or augment cardiac function using disruptive approaches such as soft robotics.
Her work has been published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Translational Medicine, Science Robotics, Advanced Materials among others. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an NIH Trailblazer Award, a Hood Award for Excellence in Child Health Research, the LabCentral Ignite Golden Ticket and the inaugural Future Founders Grand Prize.