Speaker: Alp Karakoç, Ph.D.
IDRE Fellow
UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of California Los Angeles

Location: Virtual
Registration: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwude6opjIqGtfAd7WrSbjVWgtujflTP2l1

Abstract: As life expectancy increases, there are ever-increasing cases of age-related diseases that takes medical attention. As being the second most common valvular lesion in the United States, aortic stenosis (AS) is present in about 5% of the population at and above age 65 with increasing prevalence. In AS cases, the calcium deposition in the aortic root and valve inhibits the proper functioning of the leaflets and causes further symptoms comprising, e.g. embolism, stroke and sudden death. Advances and innovations in medicine, computational and materials sciences have paved the way for minimally invasive and percutaneous interventions in the treatment of AS. In recent years, catheter-based treatment of aortic stenosis with “Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement” (TAVR) has quickly been adopted as an alternative to the surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) because of the percutaneous approach with improved survival and stroke rates. Present transcatheter valve prostheses are composed of unpressurized leaflet valves, stent and skirt, while the correct deployment of these prostheses and stent adaptation are important to ensure optimal performance and durability. Hence, 3-D in-silico investigations of transcatheter aortic valves (TAVs), i.e. digitized designs and simulations for realistic physiological loads, play a critical role not only in investigating the relevant clinical scenarios but also provide a powerful foundation for development of future heart valves with long-term functions. In this seminar, Dr. Karakoç will present basic concepts and state-of-the-art in aortic valve replacement procedures, and his current efforts on the 3-D in-silico investigations.

About the speaker: Dr. Alp Karakoç is a researcher in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, working with Dr. Ertugrul Taciroglu and collaborating with Dr. Olcay Aksoy at School of Medicine, Clinical Research in Interventional Cardiology. His research interests include experimental and computational materials mechanics, fluid-structure interactions and emerging digitized manufacturing methods, through which different material length scales can be well comprehended and even prototyped. He has been developing micromechanical and multiscale models for hierarchical material systems comprising cellular core, fibrous and composite materials as well as metamaterials which are not readily available in the nature. In addition to the numerical studies, he has gained experience in experimental mechanics, where he carried out strain measurement and domain reconstruction studies with digital image processing and machine learning algorithms. At the moment, he has been focusing on biomedical simulation studies, especially virtualization of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) so as to understand both the structural behavior of prosthetic valve and human tissue surrounding it. He hopes that his investigations as part of UCLA IDRE program will lead to a healthier and happier society with lower risks of morbidity and mortality.