CHIMERA seminar with Dr Philip Pearce

Please note, this event has been rescheduled from the 30th November to the 6th December due to strike action.

Abstract

Pathological biophysical dynamics of red blood cells (RBCs) are a hallmark of various diseases of the blood that affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, including sickle cell disease (SCD). In SCD, mutated hemoglobin aggregates into fibrils in deoxygenated conditions, increasing effective blood viscosity and eventually causing complete vascular occlusion and death, if left untreated.

Although links between blood rheology and SCD outcomes have been identified, we lack understanding of how the biophysical properties of RBCs lead to pathological alterations in blood flow. This hinders the development of tools to prioritise specific treatment strategies or to clinically monitor patients and identify complications before they manifest physiologically.

In this talk, I will present some recent work on mathematical modelling of SCD across length scales, from kinetic models of hemoglobin fibril polymerisation to continuum models of non-Newtonian blood flow. Our overall aim is to increase our biophysical understanding of SCD, improving our ability to monitor and treat this disease in patients.