Mark Alber
Vincent J. Duncan Family Professor of Applied Mathematics
Concurrent Professor of Physics
Director, Center for the Study of Biocomplexity
University of Notre Dame
Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
Abstract
A new three-dimensional multi-scale modeling approach is described for studying fluid–viscoelastic cell interaction, with cells modeled by subcellular elements coupled with fluid flow sub model. It will be demonstrated that cell geometry, stiffness and adhesivity can be modeled by directly relating parameters to experimentally measured values and that modeling the fluid–platelet interface as a surface leads to a very good correlation with experimentally observed platelet flow interactions. Using this method, the three-dimensional motion of a viscoelastic platelet in a shear blood flow was simulated and compared with experiments on tracking platelets in a blood chamber. It will be shown that the complex platelet-flipping dynamics under linear shear flows can be accurately recovered with the SCE model. The structural features and mechanical properties of three types of fibrin networks grown in microfluidic devices will be also described: networks formed from normal plasma with and without cells, and from plasma from a hemophilic patient. A multistep approach was developed for the reconstruction of a three-dimensional network structure from experimental images to quantify the structural properties of fibrin networks. The mechanical model based on the microstructures within the network will be used to calculate the bulk properties of the network.
Originally published at advanceddiagnostics.nd.edu.