Chemical and Mechanical Mechanisms Making Arterial Plaques Vulnerable to Rupture: A Mathematical Modeling Perspective
Description
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the US, and a common form of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis. This is an inflammatory disease of the large and medium arteries due to plaques that develop in the arterial wall. In modeling development of a lesion in an artery wall, there are a number of chemotactic mechanisms going on within the wall layer that lead to an arterial plaque with fibrous cap. We introduce a model involving some of these dynamic processes, present some theoretical results, do some simulations, and examine the implications of the model results. Our main goal of the project is to isolate potential mechanisms that lead to plaque rupture through thinning of the fibrous cap.
Date of Event
January 25 from 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Location
Mailman-Hollywood Auditorium 2nd Floor
Chemical and Mechanical Mechanisms Making Arterial Plaques Vulnerable to Rupture: A Mathematical Modeling Perspective
Mailman-Hollywood Auditorium 2nd Floor
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the US, and a common form of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis. This is an inflammatory disease of the large and medium arteries due to plaques that develop in the arterial wall. In modeling development of a lesion in an artery wall, there are a number of chemotactic mechanisms going on within the wall layer that lead to an arterial plaque with fibrous cap. We introduce a model involving some of these dynamic processes, present some theoretical results, do some simulations, and examine the implications of the model results. Our main goal of the project is to isolate potential mechanisms that lead to plaque rupture through thinning of the fibrous cap.
Presenter Bio
I grew up (partly) in Ft. Lauderdale, but went to college in California. I did a masters thesis in algebraic topology (spectral sequences) at San Diego State University, and a PhD in mathematical neurobiology at UCLA (1977). I have had regular academic appointments at Texas A & M, SUNY at Buffalo, and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). I served as department chair at SUNY/Buffalo and at UMBC. I spent sabbatical time also at Oxford University, Heriot-Watt University, and at the National Institutes of Health. I am now emeritus professor, having retired from UMBC in September, 2014 (partly to go cruising). My general research interests have been in mathematical biology, mathematical finance, general mathematical modeling, and nonlinear partial differential equations. Present projects, besides my talk topic (arterial plaque development), include forward and inverse problems on quantum graphs, chemotaxis, blue crab dynamics, and mechanotransduction.