How simulation helps
Medical-device development cycles are long and expensive. Early simulation work can rule out non-viable design directions before they consume hardware, animals, or clinical time, and can generate the kind of physical-mechanism evidence that supports regulatory submissions.
- Blood-contacting device flow analysis: shear-stress exposure, residence time, and hemolysis prediction.
- Microfluidic and diagnostic system modeling: mixing, reagent transport, carryover.
- Drug delivery and dissolution modeling.
- Tissue-engineering scaffold transport and mechanics.
Background & selected work
My work in this area combines peer-reviewed research in cellular mechanics and blood damage with applied device and diagnostic modeling. A few representative examples:
Tissue engineering for 3D-printed liver constructs
Contributed modeling to an implantable, 3D-printed hydrogel device with intrinsic perfusion channels (portal-venous and hepatobiliary) for liver tissue engineering. The work aims to keep engineered tissue viable by getting blood and nutrients where they need to go.
Lieberthal, Sahakyants, Szabo-Wexler, Hancock, Spann, Oliver, et al. “Implantable 3D printed hydrogels with intrinsic channels for liver tissue engineering.” PNAS 121(47), e2403322121 (2024). Read the paper →
Real-time surrogate models for blood damage
Deep-neural-network surrogate models that give near-real-time visualizations of blood damage (hemolysis) in the FDA benchmark nozzle. Model uses physics-informed handling of the input data to automatically satisfy no-slip boundary conditions.
Spann, Barakat & Hancock. “Deep Neural Network Surrogate Model for Blood Damage Modeling in the FDA Hemolysis Benchmark.” COMSOL Conference. View the abstract →
Microfluidic and diagnostic systems
Using COMSOL Multiphysics to understand and optimize fluidic diagnostic systems, including concentration gradients, reagent dissolution, chemical carryover, and mixing. This is the physics behind rapid tests for targets such as SARS-CoV-2 and cancer biomarkers.
Spann. “Modeling Fluidic Diagnostic Systems.” AIChE Institute for Learning & Innovation webinar (sponsored by COMSOL). Watch the webinar →