multiphysics of the brain
The brain is the most complex organ of the human body, and, at the same time, the least well understood. Our lab uses engineering concepts of stress, stretch, and strain to provide new insights into the form and function of the brain. We use multiscale multiphysics modeling to integrate knowledge across the scales and calibrate and validate our models with cell- and tissue-level testing, histological, and clinical data to understand living human brain.
We study the life cycle of the human brain, from the developing brain, via the healthy brain and damaged brain, to the aging brain. At all four stages, we challenge the classical field theories of mechanics at the extreme limit to show that the functional brain is tightly regulated by mechanical factors: In the developing brain, we study the instability problem of pattern formation, morphogenesis, and the emergence of shape at extremely long time scales; in the healthy brain, we probe the extremely soft behavior and explore the extreme changes from alive to dead; in the damaged and aging brain, we study the bio-chemo-mechanical degeneration at extremely short and extremely long time scales. The ultimate goal of our models is to help prevent, diagnose, and treat neurological disorders.
the developing brain
One of the most intriguing, unanswered questions of the 21st century is what drives the formation of folds during human brain development. We have shown that the morphology of our brain is modulated, at least in part, by physical forces, and not just by genetic, biological, or chemical events alone.
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the healthy brain
The mechanical properties of human brain tissue are increasingly recognized to play an important role in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. We closely collaborate with leading experts in nanoindentation, mechanical testing, and elastography to characterize the healthy human brain across the scales.
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the damaged brain
In the United States, over 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury each year, and about 5.3 million people are currently living with a traumatic brain injury-related disability. We simulate brain damage at the axon, tissue, and whole brain levels to identify the molecular failure mechanisms and characterize critical damage thresholds.
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the aging brain
The prevalence of neurodegeneration is epidemically increasing, owing--at least in part--to an extended life expectancy. We combine mechanistic, bio-chemo-mechanical modeling, tau PET image analysis, and machine learning to simulate, understand, and predict the effects of neurodegeneration on the aging brain.
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