Multiscale Computational Models to Understand Vascular Adaptation

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Vascular conduits are central to the treatment of many cardiovascular diseases- the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries and prevalent worldwide. The performance of current vascular conduits, both autologous (e.g., vein grafts) and synthetic, in many surgeries (e.g., coronary bypass surgery) is subpar and has poor medium to long term outcomes. Physics-informed, biologically faithful computational models hold great promise in understanding vascular adaptation in surgeries, and enabling solutions to improve their performance. In this talk, I will use examples of vein graft failure in coronary bypass graft surgery and neo tissue development in tissue engineered vascular grafts for Fontan surgery to illustrate how computational modeling helped gain insights into vascular adaptation. I will talk about computational models across biological scale (organ, tissue and cell) and discuss methods related to numerical solvers, data assimilation and parameter estimation. Finally, I will illustrate how insights from computational modeling helped in virtual evaluation of solutions to pressing problems in these surgeries.