Non-Invasive Analysis Cadiac Tissue Phenotypes

Arvind Sridhar

When I was in sixth grade, I first became aware of my family history of heart disease. My dad battling chronic hypertension, close relatives passing away from heart failure, and me knowing that I could be next in line … During my freshman year of high school, my curiosity to investigate better heart disease therapies drove me to take honors biology. I was especially intrigued by our discussion of the incredible healing potential of pluripotent stem cells. Eager to learn more, I decided to take a summer class in biotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania, through the Summer Academy of Applied Science and Technology … As I began to code my algorithm, I found myself exploring the exciting interface between biology and vector calculus. I realized that, by thinking of a tissue contracting as a point being displaced in the cartesian coordinate system, I could make the problem of identifying contractile force magnitude and direction much simpler. Thinking about displacement immediately called to mind vectors, which I had just learned about in my junior year multivariable calculus class. As I reviewed the literature for previous attempts at modeling tissue contractions using vectors, I encountered a paper from UCSF that employed vector fields to represent tissue displacement.