Abhay B. Ramachandra receives NSF CAREER Award to understand vein graft failure in coronary bypass surgeries
Abhay Bangalore Ramachandra, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to develop new computational models of blood vessel remodeling, with applications to vein grafts used in cardiac bypass surgeries.
About the project
Hundreds of thousands of cardiac bypass surgeries are performed in the United States each year, and vein graft failure remains one of the leading causes of complications and repeat procedures.
Vein graft failure is driven by a complex combination of mechanical, inflammatory and surgical factors. This complexity makes it difficult to understand and predict graft outcomes and slows the development of improved therapies and technologies.
Ramachandra’s project will address these challenges by creating an integrated computational framework for vascular adaptation that combines multiple modeling approaches. AI algorithms will be used to build data-informed computational models and identify key mechanisms that govern vein graft remodeling.
“This project integrates several complementary modeling approaches for blood flow and blood vessels to capture vein graft remodeling across biological length scales. Computational models allow for precise and controlled manipulation of individual contributing factors (either independently or in combination), while physics-based multiscale models can provide mechanistic insights. The developed computational model will provide a powerful tool to accelerate hypothesis generation, guide experimental design, and support translational efforts,” said Ramachandra.
About Abhay B. Ramachandra
Ramachandra’s research interests are in cardiovascular mechanics and adaptation. With expertise in both computational and experimental biomechanics, he applies these methodologies to problems in vascular adaptation and disease.
Before joining Iowa State University, Ramachandra was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from the University of California San Diego.