CAREER: Biomechanics of Tension-Induced Lung Tissue Fracture and Subsequent Pulmonary Air Leak

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support research to investigate how soft lung tissue can be injured by mechanical ventilation. This work will also study tissue injury that can lead to air leak in the lungs. Mechanical ventilation has been a life-saving therapy for many clinical complications. This research will use an engineering approach to better understand the biophysical characteristics of lung tissue that undergoes prolonged mechanical ventilation. First, this work will study the relationship between the strength of lung tissue and injuries caused by air leak. Second, this work will use acoustics to quantify the severity of air leak injuries. This work is important because how the lung tissue responds to repeated air pressure loading remains poorly understood. It is known that lung tissue can be damaged and torn due to repeated forceful stretching of the lung during mechanical ventilation. Through the damaged tissue, inhaled air can leak into the chest cavity and cause respiratory failure. The results of this work can ultimately help minimize lung injury during mechanical ventilation. The work will benefit society by generating fundamental insights into how lung tissue behaves. It will also facilitate the development of innovative technologies. Further, this research will be integrated with education to provide student-centered STEM experiences to local minority students. The overall research goal of this project is to understand how the intrinsic deformation mechanics of the lung is altered dynamically in response to repeated overdistension, and how the alternation is linked to tension-induced fracture of soft lung tissue that can lead to pulmonary air leak. Accordingly, this project will investigate quantifiable characteristics of lung tissue fracture and subsequent air leak to provide a set of comprehensive explanations for the biomechanics of tension-induced lung tissue injury. This study is organized under two research objectives: 1) determining the impacts of mechanical properties of lung tissue on initiation, propagation, and resolution of lung tissue fracture during mechanical ventilation; and 2) identifying acoustic characteristics of air leak sound generated via dynamic airflow-tissue interaction to evaluate the role of acoustic signal as a quantifiable indicator of air leak injury. Successful completion of the study will generate new knowledge that can provide fundamental insights into non-linear deformation and fracture mechanics of soft lung tissue, ultimately offering improved diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tension-induced lung injury. Further, the work will allow the PI to initiate an impactful and sustainable research career in lung mechanics, and become an educator who is dedicated to mitigating learning barriers for underrepresented minority students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.