Home Department: Biomechanical Engineering
Mentor: Joseph Woo, Cardiothoracic Surgery

1.7% of the US population is afflicted with a heart condition where blood flows backwards through the mitral valve when the left ventricle of the heart contracts. This condition historically has a survival rate that rivals that of cancer. There are multiple techniques used to repair the mitral valve, but there isn’t any objective physiological data on what the best technique is. Cole will use a mechanical left heart simulator to better elucidate how the mitral valve works, and which surgical intervention is the most effective.