CAREER: Integration of Prior Knowledge and Patient-specific Observations in Vascular Growth and Remodeling Models

该学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)奖的研究目标是将血管疾病的计算模型与患者特定的临床数据相结合，以开发一种综合的方法来做出临床相关的预测。所研究的系统集成了建模和临床测量中的先验知识和不确定性。其目标是(I)开发集成血管疾病模型、先验知识和患者特定观察的计算方法，以预测单个患者的血管生长和重塑；(Ii)展示所建议的方法在腹主动脉瘤临床治疗中的实用性。特别是，这项研究的结果将被用于预测血管内动脉瘤修复后近端颈部扩张的稳定性，并估计动脉瘤壁上的应力和破裂潜力。在美国和西方国家，血管疾病是主要的死亡原因。这一事业项目将对医疗、社会福利和经济产生重大影响，为准确估计此类疾病的阶段和可靠预测临床治疗结果提供新的技术。如果成功，这个项目将说明如何将先进的、但确定性的计算模型转移到临床应用中。这将通过提供一个可以与他们的专业知识相结合的系统工具来促进生物医学工程师和医生之间的新合作。该教育计划的重点是整合以前开发的个人教育和公共推广计划，为K-PhD学生和普通公众提供生物医学工程方面的研究经验，并促进少数族裔和代表性不足的学生参与生物医学工程研究和教育。具体地说，跨学科暑期项目将为高中、本科生、研究生和高中教师提供一个多样化的环境，让他们在生物医学研究、公共宣传和K-12课程方面合作并创造创新想法。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is to combine a computational model of a vascular disease with patient-specific clinical data in order to develop an integrative approach to make clinically relevant predictions. The system investigated integrates prior knowledge and uncertainties in modeling and in clinical measurements. The goals are (i) to develop computational methods that integrate vascular disease models, prior knowledge, and patient-specific observations to predict vascular growth and remodeling for the individual patient and (ii) to demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach in clinical management of abdominal aortic aneurysms. In particular, results from this investigation will be applied to predict the stability of proximal neck dilation after endovascular aneurysm repair and estimate the stress and rupture potential in the wall of the aneurysm. Vascular disease is the primary cause of death in the US and western countries. Providing new technologies for precise estimation of the stage of such diseases and reliable predictions of the outcomes of clinical treatment, this CAREER project will have significant impact on medical care, social welfare, and economics. If successful, this project will illustrate how to transfer an advanced, but deterministic, computational model to clinical applications. This will promote new collaboration between biomedical engineers and physicians by providing a systematic tool that they can integrate with their expertise. The education plan focuses on integrating previously developed individual education and public outreach programs to provide K-PhD students and general public research experiences in biomedical engineering and to promote participation of minority and underrepresented students in biomedical engineering research and education. Specifically, an interdisciplinary summer program will offer a diverse environment for high school, undergraduate, graduate students, and high school teachers to team up and create innovative ideas for biomedical research, public outreach and K-12 curricula.