AIMRC Seminar: The Heart Knows Best: In Silico and In Vitro Models to Engineer Cardiac Fibrosis Therapies

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Will Richardson, Bates Endowed Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering

The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center (AIMRC) will host Will Richardson, Bates Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the U of A, at 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, in Bell Engineering room 2267, when Dr. Richardson will discuss his work integrating computational systems biology models, data science approaches and in vitro bioreactors related to cardiac fibrotic remodeling in order to predict which patients are likely to develop heart failure, and tailor specific drugs based on personalized tissue contexts.

Abstract: Tissue remodeling in the heart is regulated by many different biochemical and biomechanical signals, which are integrated at the cellular level through large biochemical reaction networks with complex crosstalk and feedback loops. This system complexity hinders our ability to find adequate therapies for controlling heart disease, made even worse by large patient-to-patient variabilities in the signals that drive the system. In this talk, Richardson will discuss how his group is integrating computational systems biology models, data science approaches and in vitro bioreactors related to cardiac fibrotic remodeling to understand underlying system control mechanisms to predict which patients are likely to develop heart failure, and to tailor specific drugs based on personalized tissue contexts.

Biography: Richardson earned a B.S. in biological engineering from the U of A in 2007 and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2012 where he worked with Jimmy Moore to develop novel devices for subjecting cardiovascular cells to mechanical strains. After graduate work, he was awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Jeff Holmes and Jeff Saucerman at the University of Virginia where he helped develop computational models of mechanobiology to understand myocardial infarct scar regulation. Richardson began his faculty career in 2016 as an assistant professor of bioengineering at Clemson University, then moved to the U of A in 2022 as the Bates Endowed Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering. His lab's expertise is biochemical systems engineering, mostly related to cardiac tissue remodeling and personalized medicine with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the American Heart Association. Richardson has received several honors for this work, including an AHA Scientist Development Grant, the ASME Richard Skalak Award, the U of A College of Engineering Early Career Award and the Clemson University Dean's Endowed Professorship.

For those unable to attend in person, this seminar will also be available via Zoom.