Title: SYNTHETIC VASCULAR DESIGN AND SIMULATIONS FOR BIOMANUFACTURED TISSUES AND PATIENT-SPECIFIC MODELING APPLICATIONS

Abstract: All air-breathing vertebrates rely on extensive, multiscale vascular networks to supply nutrients and remove waste from solid organs; as such, these biophysically and biochemically entangled structures are critical for proper function in native tissues. However, the physical complexities of these networks often preclude their complete replication as physical or computational models, particularly at smaller scales where fabrication and clinical imaging modalities are often under-resolved. These limitations directly prevent comprehensive hemodynamic analysis of patient-specific anatomies which instead relies on surrogate models to approximate downstream vessels. At the same time, the lack of readily available multiscale vascular models limits perfusion strategies for large-scale biofabricated tissues. In this work, we address the current insufficiency in multiscale vascular modeling by developing a software infrastructure for rapid, model-guided design of multiscale synthetic vascular networks relying on an extension of the constrained constructive optimization framework. We demonstrate the utility of these models for both multiscale, multi-fidelity fluid modeling and biofabrication applications. Finally, we develop a multi-physics perfusion framework to predict performance of synthetic vascular constructs in larger engineered tissues.

Please contact Madelyn Bernstein for the Zoom link