Debanjan Mukherjee

PhD student wins national award for fluids research in stroke therapy

Alexander James Servantez — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:43:07 +0000

PhD student wins national award for fluids research in stroke therapy Alexander Jame… Fri, 01/17/2025 - 13:43

Alexander Servantez

Nick Rovito, a first-year PhD student in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, was living on top of the world.

After submitting a technical publication to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fluids Engineering Division, he was named one of five finalists for the Young Engineer Paper Competition and was invited to present his research at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) conference in Portland, Oregon.

Nick Rovito, first-year PhD student and winner of the American Society of Mechanical Engineer's Young Engineer Paper Competition.

Rovito’s award-winning research article is titled “In Silico Analysis of Flow-Mediated Drug Transport For Thrombolytic Therapy in Acute Ischemic Stroke.” The piece featured a multi-physics model coupling fluid dynamics, drug transport and reactions that emulates the clot-dissolving process in stroke treatment.

Simply being recognized amongst the other finalists at such a prestigious gathering was already the honor of a lifetime, he said. With over 1,600 research leaders across nearly 20 technical tracks, the IMECE conference features one of the largest and most diverse conference communities that ASME has to offer. It’s often touted as the largest mechanical engineering conference in the country.

But when presentations had concluded and the judges were done deliberating, Rovito wasn’t just a finalist. He was the winner.

As a graduate research assistant in the FLOWLab, led by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee at the University of Colorado Boulder, Rovito conducts computational fluid dynamics research analyzing the mechanisms of thrombolysis in the blood vessels of the brain. This primary mode of stroke therapy involves administering medication to help restore blood flow by dissolving blood clots that may be causing a stroke.

“The FLOWLab is very multidisciplinary,” Rovito said. “We study stroke and medicine by analyzing fluid motion and transport through the cardiovascular system. Recognizing this allows us to apply principles of mechanical engineering to an otherwise medically focused field.”

His work aims to answer two questions: why do stroke treatments fail, and how can we increase their efficacy in the future?

“When you have a stroke, there’s an artery in your brain that is being blocked by a blood clot. Tissue plasminogen activator is the only drug approved by the FDA to treat this, but nearly 50 percent of patients don’t actually see the clot fully dissolve,” Rovito said. “A stroke left untreated could spell permanent disability or death, so we want to study the fluid mechanics within the vascular structure and see exactly how that drug is being delivered to the blood clot.”

Thrombolysis is known to present other dangerous issues, as well. Tissue plasminogen activator is categorized as an anticoagulant or a blood thinner. The drug’s job is to interfere with the clotting process and prevent blood clots from forming or growing.

However, the drug is not capable of targeting specific blood clots. It will dissolve any blood clot, including those that are not causing the stroke. Rovito says this can lead to severe bleeding if the drug goes elsewhere in the brain, or if it is overused.

Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee (left) and Nick Rovito (right). Rovito is a graduate research assistant in the FLOWLab, led by Mukherjee.

“Around twenty percent of the patients who receive this drug experience major bleeding whether the stroke treatment is successful or not,” he said. “Understanding drug delivery from a flow physics standpoint helps us understand what the drug is doing when it’s administered so we can potentially mitigate those issues in the future.”

“I felt confident about my work,” Rovito said. “But I was just happy to be there. Everybody’s work was phenomenal. Any of the finalists could have won. So when the results came out, I was thrilled.”

Mukherjee, a co-author of the publication, had no doubt that Rovito’s work had what it took to win.

“Drug delivery investigation is at the core of our research group, and a lot of the strides we’ve made in modeling and simulation tools have been because of Nick’s efforts,” said Mukherjee, also a faculty member in biomedical engineering (BME) at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��. “This is a very complicated problem, and his research is novel. The fact that he was able to win this award three semesters into his PhD pursuit speaks to his great ability to accomplish these technical tasks.”

Rovito hopes to continue improving this model and solving problems related to the clinical challenges of today. Their next steps in this project related to stroke therapy will be in collaboration with the neurology team at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a frequent collaborator with the FLOWLab.

Beyond his research, Rovito also hopes to translate his technical skills into a long-term teaching career.

“One of my passions is teaching and scientific communication,” he said. “��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� is a great place for me to continue my technical work and develop as an educator.”

First-year PhD student Nick Rovito has been named the winner of the Young Engineer Paper Competition at this year's International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) held by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His novel research aims to answer two questions: why do stroke treatments fail, and how can we increase their efficacy in the future?

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PhD student Nick Rovito (middle right) accepting the Young Engineer Paper Competition Award during the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE) conference in Portland, Oregon.

Computer-simulated heart flow model could help treat pediatric heart disease patients

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:08:19 +0000

Computer-simulated heart flow model could help treat pediatric heart disease patients Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/09/2022 - 16:08

Research from Professor Debanjan Mukherjee and a collaborative team of biomedical engineers, physicians and researchers could enable significant advances for the 40,000 pediatric congenital heart disease patients (CHD) born each year.

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Researchers develop patient-specific models to prevent repeat strokes

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 17:37:08 +0000

Researchers develop patient-specific models to prevent repeat strokes Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 12/19/2020 - 10:37

Oksana Schuppan

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, killing 5.7 million people each year. However, with diagnostic technologies being developed by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, engineers and clinicians are hopeful some strokes will soon be prevented.

Above: Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee.
Top: Blood flow through the arteries and into the Circle of Willis in the brain (right). Successive snapshots of modeled embolic fragments traveling to the brain and leading to stroke (left three images).

Mukherjee and his collaborators, Drs. Jonathan Coutinho and Valeria Guglielmi of Amsterdam University Medical Centers and Dr. Michelle Leppert of CU Anschutz Medical Campus, have received a $584,000 NIBIB Trailblazer Award from the National Institutes of Health to use over the next three years. These funds will enable them to fine-tune patient-specific computational models that will determine how emboli formed at certain locations can lead to a stroke at a specific region in the brain.

Embolic stroke is caused when a blood clot or piece of biological debris, known as an embolus, becomes loose in the bloodstream and creates a blockage that stops blood supply to a specific region of the brain. When the brain tissue does not receive blood over a period of time, the tissue becomes damaged and may die.

“Our strategy for treating these patients currently hinges on our ability to pinpoint the most likely source of the embolus and treat the underlying cause,” said Leppert. “This is why we are excited about this project: because it may offer tools in the future that helps us to objectively pinpoint where an embolus-causing stroke originates.”

The key to figuring out where the embolus originates is understanding how an embolus could be transported from various locations in the heart-brain arterial network to the brain, especially when multiple cardiac or arterial sources may exist. To do so, researchers at Mukherjee's group at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� will be using a patient-specific computational model known as in-silico embolus source-destination likelihood (SoDeL) mapping. This method is non-invasive and does not require additional imaging costs for the patient.

Coutinho and Guglielmi will begin by gathering a comprehensive clinical and imaging dataset, including the CT scans of the complete heart-brain arterial network of hundreds of stroke patients from Amsterdam UMC.

“We are imaging the heart, aortic arch, cervical and intracerebral arteries in a ‘one-stop-shop’ protocol directly in the emergency room, right after the stroke has occurred,” said Guglielmi.

Each CT scan will then be converted into a three-dimensional computational model and paired with a simulation developed by Mukherjee’s group, mimicking how blood flows from the patient’s heart to their brain. With the simulation in place, Mukherjee and his group will run thousands of what-if scenarios for each patient, releasing thousands of virtual emboli and tracking which source locations are most likely to cause a stroke where one has occurred.

“This method lets us go from the source to the destination millions of times,” said Mukherjee. “When we play out every possible what-if scenario, we get a stroke risk indication that, when paired with clinical data, can determine exactly where the stroke originated.”

“I’ve always found it fascinating that many of the same principles you learn in the context of a machine, engine or pump are also governing very vital physical processes,” said Mukherjee. “The biggest difference between fluids flowing through a tube and the human body is that our arteries will never be straight. This causes the emboli to travel with a lot of swirling.”

Leppert said collaborations like this are integral to innovation.

“Too often clinicians and scientists work in parallel, not in tangent, so that progress is only theoretical but never realized,” Leppert said. “We often underestimate the impact we can have on one another and the ultimate impact collaborations such as this can make on patient outcomes.”

Mukherjee said it’s not every day he ends up being able to make such an advancement with international collaborators that will be able to address more than one challenge in the medical field with longstanding consequences on human life. His group is one of the first to be able to model fluid flow for the entire heart-brain arterial pathway, research that is paving the way for stroke prevention around the world.

With diagnostic technologies being developed by Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, engineers and clinicians are hopeful some strokes may soon be prevented.

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New healthcare-related grants enable research into pandemics, rheumatoid arthritis

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:35:41 +0000

New healthcare-related grants enable research into pandemics, rheumatoid arthritis Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/03/2020 - 17:35

The AB Nexus Research Collaboration Grant program announced its inaugural round of grants totaling $625,000 for novel research projects integrating expertise from the CU Anschutz and ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� campuses. Three of these projects were born out of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering.

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Infectious disease containment, anxiety disorder interventions among collaborative projects funded by AB Nexus grants

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Infectious disease containment, anxiety disorder interventions among collaborative projects funded by AB Nexus grants Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/20/2020 - 00:00

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Mukherjee receives Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 21:11:35 +0000

Mukherjee receives Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/28/2020 - 15:11

Assistant Professor Debanjan Mukherjee is one of the recipients of the 2020 Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards. These competitive awards are aimed to help ORAU member institutions retain their best young faculty members. Mukherjee was nominated for this award through a campus-wide internal competition and is one of 35 junior faculty nationwide to receive the award. This award is in support of Mukherjee’s research proposal on developing bench-top vascular flow loop systems for embolic stroke. The award includes seed funds and matching funds from the Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering Department, which will enable the FLOWLab research group to create a pilot flow-loop system to study how embolic particles travel across arteries to cause stroke, a leading causes of death and disability worldwide.

Debanjan Mukherjee received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, enabling his research group to create a pilot flow-loop system to study how embolic particles travel across arteries to cause stroke.

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