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Computational Modeling of Vascular Pathologies and Therapies: Toward Personal Medicine

Speaker
Stefano Casarin, Ph.D.
Date
Location
SEC 206
Abstract
Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease (PAOD) is a chronic condition affecting about 12 million people annually in the US. The physiological circulation is typically restored with a Vein Graft Bypass (VGB), a surgical intervention that suffers of a high rate of restenosis incidence.
It is our hypothesis that a deep understanding of the dynamics regulating the restenosis is pivotal in order to move toward a decisive improvement of the current techniques.
Accordingly, our group of research focused on a two parallel streams of projects. On one end, we developed a series of computational models able to replicate the healing of a VGB during the post-surgical follow-up. On the other end, a multiscale model, able to cover the healing process from genetic to tissue level, allowed us to test virtual genetic therapies aimed to improve graft longevity.
It is our belief that an approach of this kind will drive medical research across a sphere of treatments customized on the single patient, which is the key to move Medicine toward the future.