Cardiovascular Hemodynamics and Device Testing Laboratory

The cardiovascular dynamics laboratory has multiple experimental platforms to study the hemodynamics and mechanics of native, prosthetic and transcatheter heart valve repair and replacement devices. These simulators integrate with clinical imaging modalities, providing flexible avenues to validate new technologies per ISO 5910 standards. A list of platforms are summarized below and shown on the right.
Key equipment:
  • Programmable Vivitro superpump (x2) 
  • Acrylic and silicone heart models 
  • iWorx data acquisition systems
  • Carolina medical electromagnetic flow probes
  • Utah medical pressure transducers
  • 16 channel sonomicrometry system
  • Centrifugal pumps (x2)
  • Strain measurement system
  • High speed cameras (x2)

Preclinical Translational Research Lab

The preclinical laboratory was developed to rapidly take new concepts and devices from design stages to advanced preclinical studies. 
High throughput physiology & biocompatibility lab
  • Four surgical stations
  • ADV 500 invasive hemodynamic measurements
  • Visualsonics 2100 ultrasound
  • GE vivid 7 system
Preclinical translational laboratory consists of
  • Cardiac Surgical Operating Suite 
  • Cardiopulmonary bypass systems for device implantation
  • Phillips Allura cath lab
  • SC2000 prime 3D ultrasound with ICE imaging
  • Transonic PV loop system
  • Post-operative intensive care unit for cardiac studies

Molecular Biology and Biomechanical Testing Lab

The cellular and molecular biology laboratory is setup to perform biological and histological analysis of tissue from different models. This lab consists of three parts: (a) Cell culture facility with incubators and microscopy; (b) biomaterial electrospinning system; and (c) material and tissue mechanical testing core.

  • Cellscale Biaxial Mechanical Tester
  • ABI Step One Plus RT-PCR
  • Thermo scientific ChemiDoc MP Gel Imaging System
  • Laminar flow hood (x2)
  • Barker CO2 incubators (x2)
  • Olympus IX51 fluorescence microscope
  • Basic histopathology tissue processing and slide preparation equipment

Machine Shop and Electronics Lab

Our lab is equipped with a small machine shop that serves our day to day needs for designing and prototyping new implants. In addition to the prototyping we have a basic electrical and electronics shop in our lab to build small components that are required for our research. Major equipment in this lab includes:
  • Cube X Trio 3D printer
  • Formlabs 3D printer with UV curing oven
  • Solidworks CAD software
  • Soldering and welding
  • Strainsmart strain-gauge based load cells
  • Sonomicrometry​
A university machine shop is located in the adjacent building providing us access to a mill, drill, lathe, laser cutter and high resolution and large format 3D printing.