ISSUE TWO VOLUME TWO
NOVEMBER , 2007
A GT-BMES STUDENT PUBLICATION FOR THE COMMUNITY OF GT-BME
Students Discuss Research Monica Liou ‘10
Biomedical Engineering is a very wide field with endless possibilities of research. With more than 20 different labs at this school alone, it should not be too hard for an undergraduate BME student to spark an interest in one particular lab. In addition to neurological sciences, biomaterials, and drug delivery, the BME Department offers a lab that investigates one of the most important organs in the human body: the heart. As director of the Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Dr. Yoganathan has been actively working in this field for nearly three decades. He devotes his research to the fluid mechanics of artificial heart valves and also works with complex cardiac defects. Supported by government and industrial organizations, Dr. Yoganathan has medi-
cal collaborations with Massachusetts General Hospital, University of AlabamaBirmingham, Emory University, University of North Carolina, and NIH. As an undergraduate student, Sarah Hooson has worked
called mitral valve regurgitation. This is caused by remodeling and distortion of the left ventricle, which results in the displacement of the papillary muscles. This displacement of the muscles tethers the leaflets of the mitral valve into the left ventricle and therefore restricts the ability of the valve to close efficiently. Current techniques are ineffective, allowing the condition to resurface in five years or less. Hooson’s project deals with cutting the chords attaching the papillary muscles to the leaflets as a possible treatment. photo courtesy of Lexi Gentry Hooson has conducted a series of in Dr. Yoganathan’s lab since experiments. The valve in the this past summer. flow tube is run in various posi“I really like research betions; first as a control with a cause it gives you a hands-on low regurgitation volume to approach to a topic. It’s a good show that its position would be way of applying knowledge that that of an actual heart. The valve you learn from class and lets is then dilated to 2.0 times its you dive deeper into a certain original size and the papillary topic or specific area,” said muscles are displaced by 10 mm Hoosen. in the apical, posterior, and latHer research deals with a eral direction. complication of heart disease