February 4, 2025
Manuel Rausch, an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, is part of an interdisciplinary research team that has received a grant to advance women’s health research.
The team, led by Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, a professor of biomedical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, received a five-year, National Institutes of Health grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development entitled “Model-Directed Design of Vaginal Stents to Prevent Post-radiation Stenosis.”
Up to 75% of patients who receive pelvic radiation treatment experience vaginal stenosis, a condition that can significantly impact their quality of life but is not well understood. To address this, Cosgriff-Hernandez and her team are developing a patient-forward vaginal stent designed to treat this condition by maintaining the vaginal opening.
The project will also generate advanced models and testing methods to improve gynecological device design and uncover key insights into how to prevent and reverse the effects of vaginal stenosis.
Rausch’s role to support the grant is to develop computational models of the vaginal stent, which reduces the need for physical experiments.
“We will use these models to explore functional-critical parameters and to virtually optimize its design. This is a perfect example of the importance of engineering (and mechanics) overcoming public health challenges,” Rausch said.
Additional co-investigators on the project are Julie Hakim, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine and Melissa Grunlan, professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A&M University.
“By integrating a patient-centric design, cutting-edge materials science, and computational modeling, we can overcome critical gaps in current care to restore function and improve quality of life for these underserved patients. This innovative approach is driven by the power of clinician-engineer partnerships and team science," said Cosgriff-Hernandez.
Rausch's research interests are focused on soft tissue biomechanics. He uses experimental as well as computational tools to characterize and understand the mechanical behavior of biological soft tissues such as myocardium, vascular soft tissue, heart valve tissue, and blood clots to improve diagnostic and therapeutic methods, and medical device design.
The research reported in this article was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD116968. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
