Network flow modelling of lymphatic vessels.

Technical introduction and background.
The lymphatic system has many recognized important roles in normal physiology and in a variety of disease conditions. In addition to returning fluid from interstitial tissue spaces to the blood circulation, it also serves as an important transport route for immune cells. Lymph nodes (LN) are important sites for cellular interactions involved in immunity, inflammation and fluid balance. Transport phenomena and/or breakdowns in lymphatic system performance are crucial, or at least involved in, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, immune system functions, and injury resolution. Despite the importance in so many causes of death and disability, little is actually known about transport mechanisms in this obscure system.

Objectives and Methodology.
Our research on the lymphatic system spans multiple scales and physical phenomena. We perform experiments to determine the effects of mechanical influences on the cells that make up lymphatic vessels, and use that information to feed fluid and mass transport models that integrate up to the whole network level. We use multiple analytical and computational methods to simulate pumping of individual vessels/vessel networks, and the transport of important substances such as nitric oxide, antigens and chemokines. These methods include fluid/structure interaction modelling with commercial software packages, as well as solution of coupled nonlinear PDEs with Matlab and Mathematica. There are many issues to be addressed throughout this work. The objectives of this project will be exploring the pumping characteristics of lymphatic networks, e.g. predict the flow rates generated under different pressure conditions, using flow modelling of lymphatic vessels.

Resources
We have access to extensive computational and experimental resources to support this work. We also collaborate with several lymphatic physiologists in the EU and USA, and students have the opportunity to work in their labs.