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Griffith, Boyce E

Boyce Griffith

Professor
Associate Chair for Research
Chapman Hall 425
919-962-7110
boyceg@email.unc.edu
Website

Research Interests

Computational and applied mathematics, cardiovascular physiology, fluid-structure interaction, high-performance scientific computing

Professional Background

BA Rice University, 2000; BS Rice University, 2000; PhD New York University, 2005; Postdoctoral: New York University, 2005-2008; Faculty: New York University, 2008-2014; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2014-present

Research Synopsis

I am a mathematical scientist who develops broadly useful computational tools to predict physiological function and dysfunction. I am interested in a range of applications, but my primary focus is the cardiovascular system. My goal is to develop predictive modeling platforms for designing or improving medical devices and clinical treatment strategies, enabling computational modeling-based precision therapeutics. The core elements of my approach are a series of extensions of the immersed boundary (IB) method for fluid-structure interaction (FSI). FSI is ubiquitous in nature and occurs at molecular to environmental scales: writhing DNA in nucleoplasm; beating cilia and flagella; blebbing cell membranes; projecting lamellipodia; flowing blood; swimming fish; flying birds and insects; and dispersing seeds, carried by the wind. My research group and I actively work both to extend the IB method and to apply these extensions to create new FSI models of the heart, arteries, and veins, and of cardiovascular medical devices, including bioprosthetic heart valves, ventricular assist devices, and inferior vena cava filters. We are also calibrating and validating these models using in vitro and in vivo approaches. We also model cardiac electrophysiology and electro-mechanical coupling, with a focus on atrial fibrillation (AF), and aim to develop mechanistically detailed descriptions of thrombosis in AF. This work is carried out in collaboration with clinicians, engineers, computer and computational scientists, and mathematical scientists in academia, industry, and regulatory agencies.

Representative Publications

Fluid-Structure interaction Models of Bioprosthetic Heart Valve Dynamics in An Experimental Pulse Duplicator
J. H. Lee, A. D. Rygg, E. M. Kolahdouz, S. Rossi, S. M. Retta, N. Duraiswamy, L. N. Scotten, B. A. Craven, and B. E. Griffith,
Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 48, 1475-1490, 2020

An Immersed interface Method for Discrete Surfaces
E. M. Kolahdouz, A. P. S. Bhalla, B. A. Craven, and B. E. Griffith,
Journal of Computational Physics, 400, 108854, 2020

Immersed Methods for Fluid-Structure interaction
B. E. Griffith and N. A. Patankar,
Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 52, 421-448, 2020