The TanX lab was awarded its first NSF grant through Engineering Research Initiative program

Congratulations to the TanX group!

This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) award will support research that will contribute new knowledge related to the mechanics of blood clots. A clot is a solid substance that can form spontaneously from the cells and proteins of blood. Clots are essential to stopping bleeding from a wound, but also can be dangerous if they improperly block a blood vessel causing, for example, a heart attack or stroke. Decades of research have led to an understanding of the biochemistry and cell biology of clot formation, but how clots are affected by the mechanical forces of blood flow is not well understood. Clots that cause heart attack and stroke often form in flowing blood, thus understanding how the flow forces affect clot formation may be important to preventing or treating these conditions. This research will develop a model for clotting. The project will use artificial intelligence to make a generalized predictive model of clot strength using clot composition data. The research will benefit society by enabling patient-specific clot modeling with the goal of improving personalized medicine. The project spans several disciplines including mechanical engineering, computational science, biomedical engineering, and art and design. The multi-disciplinary approach will be used as part of an outreach effort to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in research.