Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Neuromechanics: Using computational mechanics to study brain health

Johannes Weickenmeier, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology

Abstract

The brain is our most complex organ and provides many scientific opportunities for engineering disciplines; yet, despite the obvious role of mechanics on the cell-level all the way to the organ-level, neuromechanics remains understudied. My research integrates experimental and computational methods to study the mechanobiological behavior of the human brain, with a particular interest in myelination during development, brain swelling during stroke, and the structural changes associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

In this talk, I will introduce our computational approaches to simulating brain behavior during swelling, growth, aging, and degeneration. Our simulations predominantly build on anatomically accurate reconstructions of the brain and differentiate between gray matter, white matter, and fluid spaces. We develop multiphysics models that couple relevant biological mechanisms and mechanical response, i.e., tissue loading, swelling, and shrinking , depending on the application. Our applications have provided fundamental new insight into brain behavior and can be used to inform clinicians about long-term brain changes. Our models realistically reproduce hallmark features of cerebral atrophy during aging, the spatiotemporal progression patterns of biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases, and the onset locations of white matter lesions due to mechanical overloading of the lateral ventricular wall.

Our work is useful in identifying and systematically studying disease mechanisms with the overall goal to monitor brain changes in the clinical setting, support the development of intervention strategies, and move towards in silico clinical trials.

Biography

Johannes Weickenmeier completed his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 2015 and worked as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Ellen Kuhl at Stanford University. His research includes the experimental and computational characterization of soft tissues with a specific interest in the skin and brain. His current work focuses on our fundamental understanding of mechanobiological properties and mechanisms in the healthy and aging brain, as well as coupled multi-field formulations for the spread of neurodegenerative diseases, such as in Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.