Analysis of muscle fiber structure in cardiac tissue
Collaboration
I am PhD student in the lab of Eberhard Bodenschatz at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, working together with the lab of Alexander Ecker. Thus, this project is a collaboration between the two labs.
Motivation
Heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in developed countries. They damage the heart muscle, leading to scarring and heart failure. Currently, the only routine treatment for heart failure is a heart transplant. However, due to the shortage of donor hearts, alternative therapies are being developed. One such approach is engineered heart muscle (EHM) patches, which are implanted on top of scar tissue to help regenerate a failing heart (paper). To routinely use EHM patches in a clinical setting, the optimal patch for each patient must be calculated. The first step is to generate a model of the patient’s left ventricle, including scar tissue.
Project
The goal of this project is to establish a workflow for generating 3D models of scarred left ventricles from MRI data. The workflow will include automatic segmentation of the left ventricle and scar tissue from contrast-enhanced MRI images, fitting a 3D mesh to the ventricular segmentation, and mapping the scar tissue onto the 3D mesh. This approach extends the method described in this paper to work for scarred left ventricles.
Thesis
This project opens the possibility to explore several research questions:
- Is it possible to segment scar tissue from MRI images without contrast-enhancement ?
- How can the speed of fitting a 3D mesh to the segmentation masks be improved ?
- Can we generate a lower dimensional basis to represent the scared left ventricles of different patients ?
Requirements
Some basic experience in coding is recommended, along with basic knowledge of machine learning. No prior knowledge of biology is necessary. The student is expected to work independently and actively contribute to the direction of the project.
Contact
To apply please email Ina Braun stating your interest in this project and detailing your relevant skills.
