Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/04/2023
11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Speaker: Suncica (Sunny) Canic – UC Berkeley

Series Title: A Mathematical Approach to the Design of a Bioartificial Pancreas

Lecture Title: A Mathematical Approach to the Design of a Bioartificial Pancreas

Abstract: This talk will address the design of a first implantable bioartificial pancreas without the need for immunosuppressant therapy. The design is based on transplanting the healthy (donor) pancreatic cells into a poroelastic medium (alginate hydrogel, or agarose gel) and encapsulating the cell-containing medium between two nanopore semi-permeable membranes.  The nanopore membranes are manufactured to block the immune cells from attacking the organ, while allowing passage of nutrients and oxygen to keep the transplanted cells viable as long as possible. The key challenge is maintaining the survival of transplanted pancreatic cells for an extended period of time by providing sufficient oxygen supply. This challenge is addressed via our nonlinear, multi-scale, multi-physics mathematical and computational models. At the macro scale we designed a nonlinear fluid-poroelastic structure interaction model to study the flow of blood in the bioartificial pancreas, coupled to a nonlinear advection-reaction-diffusion model to study oxygen supply to the cells. At the micro-scale, we use particle based simulations (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) in conjunction with Encoder-Decoder Convolution Neural Networks to capture the fine micro-structure (architecture) of hydrogels and how the architecture influences the macro-scale parameters, such as the spatially dependent permeability tensor. These models inspired the design of a second-generation bioartificial pancreas. They also initiated the development of new mathematical analysis approaches to study multi-layered poroelastic media interacting with incompressible, viscous fluids. Parts of this work are joint with biomedical engineer S. Roy (UCSF), and mathematicians Y. Wang (Texas Tech), J. Webster (University of Maryland Baltimore County), L. Bociu (North Carolina State University), and B. Muha (University of Zagreb, Croatia).

Location: MDCL 1305