Cardiovascular Engineering

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death and disability in developed countries. Cardiovascular engineering encompasses a multi-disciplinary effort to improve our understanding of cardiovascular disease and develop better therapies.

This program seeks to develop new methods to study, diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases. Examples include understanding how molecules control the heartbeat, imaging the electrical potential at the surface of the heart, engineering cardiac tissues, and creating mathematical models to connect heart function to its nanoscale molecular foundation.

Primary Faculty

Jianmin Cui

Professor
Aims to design ultrasound protocols for drug & gene delivery

Song Hu

Professor
Advances theranostics through the development of novel optical and photoacoustic technologies

Nathaniel Huebsch

Associate Professor
Focuses on basic & translational stem cell mechanobiology

Abhinav Jha

Associate Professor
Develops computational-imaging methods for diagnosing and treating diseases

Jin-Yu Shao

Professor
Works to further understand infectious & inflammatory diseases

Jonathan Silva

Professor
Creating better ways to treat cardiac arrhythmia

Chao Zhou

Professor
Develops novel optical imaging technologies for biomedical applications including cancer research and tissue engineering

Affiliated Faculty

David Bark, PhD - Hematology and Oncology

Platelet mechanobiology, thrombosis and hemostasis, biotransport, biofluids, biomechanics, blood-contacting medical devices, cardiovascular development

Carmen Bergom - Radiation Oncology

Radiation-induced cardiac toxicity, breast cancer, radiation therapy, MRI, genetic models, RNA-sequencing, pre-clinical models, image-guided radiation therapy, tumor microenvironment, lung cancer, vasculature, hypoxia, mitochondrial function, inflammation, cardio-oncology

Matthew Bersi, PhD - Mechanical Engineeing & Materials Science

Cardiovascular disease, fibrosis, inflammation, lymphocytes, soft tissue biomechanics, cell mechanics and mechanobiology, mathematical modeling

Guy Genin - Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Interfaces and adhesion in physiology and nature; optical strain analysis; continuum mechanics; viscoelasticity

Michael Greenberg - Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics

molecular motors in health and disease, single molecule, optical trapping, stem cells, tissue engineering

Geoff Hugo - Radiation Oncology

image guided radiation therapy, adaptive radiation therapy, machine learning, lung CT, image analysis

Sándor Kovács, PhD, MD - Medicine, Cardiovascular

mathematical physiology, kinematic modeling, cardiovascular biophysics, echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, cardiac MRI, hemodynamics, human physiology

Gregory Lanza, MD - Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Division

Targeted drug delivery. Molecular imaging, Nanomedicine, Vascular disease, Liquid and Solid Cancer Technologies, Contrast Agent Development

Robert Mecham - Cell Biology & Physiology

Extracellular matrix, vascular development, vascular disease, cell-matrix interactions, tissue mechanics and development

Jeanne Nerbonne - Medicine - Cardiovascular Division

Regulation of membrane excitability, structure and function of ion channels

Colin Nichols - Cell Biology & Physiology

Molecular aspects of potassium channels

Stacey Rentschler, MD, PhD - Medicine - Cardiovascular Division

programming and reprogramming cardiac conduction, arrhythmias, optical mapping, gene therapy

Janice Robertson - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

membrane protein folding thermodynamics assembly single-molecule TIRF microscopy computational modeling structure function oligomerization lipids

Hua Pan - Division of Rheumatology

Nanotechnology, MRI, Inflammation, Cardio-Oncology, Onco-nephrology, Cancer, Drug development

Kooresh Isaac Shoghi - Radiology - Rad Sci

Computational biology at the interface with in-vivo imaging in animal models, in particular as it relates to metabolic regulation and obesity, diabetes

Monica Shokeen - Radiology

Contrast Agent Development, Nanoparticles, Cancer Imaging, Cardiovascular Imaging, Functional PET, MRI

Jessica Wagenseil - Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

vascular mechanics, vascular development, extracellular matrix, elastin, elastic fibers, vascular modeling

Yong Wang- Obstetrics & Gynecology

Diffusion MRI and PET imaging; Noninvasive Electrophysiology Imaging; Cancer and Immunotherapy Imaging; Preterm Birth; Alzheimer's disease

Pamela Woodard, MD

Radiology, PET, MRI, Molecular Imaging, Cardiac Imaging, Translational Research, PET tracers, Atherosclerosis

Mohamed Zayed - Surgery

peripheral vascular disease, arteriovenous implants for treatment of diabetes, venous thrombectomy device treating DVT

Christian Zemlin - Cardiac Surgery

Cardiac Electrophysiology, Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiac Ablation, Electroporation, Defibrillation