MEMP PhD Thesis Defense (12:30pm): Luca Rosalia

Soft Robotic Platforms for the Simulation of Cardiovascular Disease and Device Development

The development of safe and effective medical devices relies on high-fidelity models of human disease. The more closely these models can capture the complexity of the pathophysiological phenomena driving disease or their effects, the greater the impact these models can have on clinical medicine. My work explores the use of soft robotics in disease modeling as a tool to recapitulate the biomechanical aspects of human disease with high-fidelity and in a patient-specific way. Specifically, soft robotic tools are developed to mimic cardiovascular disease in physical simulators, and in small and large animal models, as platforms for the design, development, and evaluation of medical devices.

The primary goal of this work is to recapitulate the biomechanics and hemodynamics of aortic stenosis (AS) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), cumulatively affecting over 40 million people worldwide. I developed a highly tunable and biomimetic soft robotic aortic sleeve that can re-create the anatomy and hemodynamics of AS in a patient-specific fashion. In a preclinical swine model of AS, I demonstrate the ability of the sleeve to recapitulate clinically relevant hemodynamics of AS and to mimic the complex transvalvular blood flow patterns associated with AS through a combination of invasive monitoring and 4D flow imaging techniques. I then customized the design of the aortic sleeve to develop a highly tunable, patient-specific, and 3D-printed hemodynamic in vitro model of AS. In this work, the pumping action of each patient’s heart model is re-created via a soft robotic cardiac sleeve. I show that the actuation of the cardiac sleeve can be tuned to recapitulate changes in contractility and diastolic filling in a patient-specific way. I used clinical data to demonstrate the ability of the sleeve to simulate filling dysfunction associated with HFpEF. Using similar soft robotic sleeves, I developed an acute large animal model of the hemodynamics of HFpEF, and a chronic small animal model of ventricular remodeling induced by controllable, progressive, and reversible aortic banding.

Together with the lumped-parameter, finite element, and computational fluid dynamic models developed to optimize the design of these soft robotic systems, these platforms were then used for medical device design and treatment evaluation. Specifically, this work discusses the design of a pulsatile-flow mechanical circulatory support device for HFpEF, patient-specific hemodynamic evaluation post TAVR implantation, the effects of pressure overload reversal on cardiac remodeling, and novel device-based solutions for the treatment of HFpEF.

Thesis Supervisor:
Ellen Roche, PhD
W.M. Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and of the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, MIT

Thesis Committee Chair:
Giovanni Traverso, MD PhD
Karl Van Tassel (1925) Career Development Professor; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT. Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School

Thesis Reader:
Christopher Nguyen, PhD
Director Cardiovascular Innovation Research Center (CIRC), Cleveland Clinic. Assistant investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital. Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School

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Zoom invitation –

Luca Rosalia is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. 

Topic: Luca Rosalia Thesis Defense
Time: Tuesday, May 2, 2023 12:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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