Ellen Kuhl

Honors and Awards

• Graduate Research Fellowship, German National Science Foundation (DFG) (1996-1999)
• Habilitation Research Fellowship, German National Science Foundation (DFG) (2001-2004)
• Hellman Faculty Scholar, Hellman Faculty Scholar (2009)
• NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2010-2014)

Professional Education

Internet Links

• Lab Website

Current Research Interests

I am an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering (courtesy), and Cardiothoracic Surgery (courtesy). My area of professional expertise is living matter physics, the creation of theoretical and computational models to predict the acute and chronic response of living structures to environmental changes during development and disease progression. My specific interest is the multiscale modeling of growth and remodeling, the study of how living matter adapts its form and function to changes in mechanical loading, and how this adaptation could be traced back to structural alterations on the cellular or molecular levels. Growth and remodeling might be induced naturally, e.g., through elevated pressure, stress, or strain, or interventionally, e.g., through prostheses, stents, tissue grafts, or stem cell injection. Combining theories of electrophysiology, photoelectrochemistry, biophysics, and continuum mechanics, my lab has specialized in predicting the chronic loss of form and function in growing and remodeling cardiac tissue using patient-specific custom-designed finite element models.

Publications

• On the biomechanics and mechanobiology of growing skin. Zöllner AM, Buganza Tepole A, Kuhl E. J Theor Biol. 2012: 297C 166-175
• Mitral Valve Annuloplasty : A Quantitative Clinical and Mechanical Comparison of Different Annuloplasty Devices. Rausch MK, Bothe W, Kvitting JP, Swanson JC, Miller DC, Kuhl E. Ann Biomed Eng. 2011
• Multiscale computational models for optogenetic control of cardiac function. Abilez OJ, Wong J, Prakash R, Deisseroth K, Zarins CK, Kuhl E. Biophys J. 2011; 101 (6): 1326-34
• A multiscale model for eccentric and concentric cardiac growth through sarcomerogenesis. Göktepe S, Abilez OJ, Parker KK, Kuhl E. J Theor Biol. 2010; 265 (3): 433-42
• Anterior mitral leaflet curvature during the cardiac cycle in the normal ovine heart. Kvitting JP, Bothe W, Göktepe S, Rausch MK, Swanson JC, Kuhl E, Ingels NB, Miller DC. Circulation. 2010; 122 (17): 1683-9