The biomechanics of native and engineered valvular tissues (Video) 
(Seminars)
27 March 2012
4 - 5pm
Venue: Ground Floor Seminar Room (G010), UniServices House, 70 Symonds Street, Auckland
A Bioengineering research seminar by Professor Michael Sacks, PhD, Director, Cardiovascular Biomechanics Laboratory, JA Swanson Endowed Chair in Bioengineering, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
Our laboratory has pioneered morphologically-based constitutive models which describe native and engineered cardiac tissues. For the engineered tissues, the scaffolds require advanced biomechanical models to clarify how their intricate microstructure and the associated complexity of mechanical interactions occurring between scaffold, cellular, and extracellular matrix constituents all work together in an engineered tissue.
We have extended our mathematical models that simulate the mechanical behaviour of the scaffold and the developing tissue, which are intended to facilitate the design of engineered tissues and mechanical conditioning regimens. These models could play a pivotal role in the design and development of engineered soft tissues.
I will present applications to state-of-the-art elastomeric scaffolds and demonstrate how they can be designed for cardiovascular applications. Computational implementation of these models represents the major next step in the understanding of biological tissues, and is essential for the understanding of the underlying processes for growth and remodeling, and hence laws governing the mechano-growth. I will also present recent results of our research.
New date
Professor Sacks's seminar was postponed from 20 to 27 March.
Watch the high-resolution version of this video.
