Exploring the Multiphysics of the Brain During Aging and in Neurological Diseases

Abstract: The brain is our most complex organ and provides many scientific opportunities for engineering disciplines; yet, despite the obvious role of mechanics on the cell-level all the way to the organ-level, neuromechanics remains understudied. My research integrates experimental and computational methods to study the mechanobiological behavior of the human brain, with a particular interest in structural changes and tissue damage associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases,  myelination during development, and brain swelling during stroke. In this talk, I will introduce our computational approaches to simulating brain behavior during aging, neurodegeneration, and other neurological diseases. Our simulations predominantly build on anatomically accurate reconstructions of the brain and differentiate between gray matter, white matter, and fluid spaces. We develop multiphysics models that couple relevant biological mechanisms and mechanical response, i.e., tissue loading, swelling, and shrinking , depending on the application. Our applications have provided fundamental new insight into brain behavior and can be used to inform clinicians about long-term brain changes. Our models realistically reproduce hallmark features of cerebral atrophy during aging, the spatiotemporal progression patterns of biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases, and the onset locations of white matter lesions due to mechanical overloading of the lateral ventricular wall. Our work is useful in identifying and systematically studying disease mechanisms with the overall goal to monitor brain changes in the clinical setting, support the development of intervention strategies, and move towards in silico clinical trials.

Bio: Professor Johannes Weickenmeier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Science and is a Fellow of St. Cross College since 2024. He is part of the Podium Institute and leads the efforts on Brain Health. He obtained his PhD from the ETH Zurich in 2015 and trained as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University for three years. He then joined Stevens Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering from 2018-2024. His area of expertise is the design of theoretical and computational models to simulate and predict the multiphysics behavior of living systems with a particular focus on the brain. 

His group aims to understand the most prevalent damage mechanisms associated with healthy aging, neurodegenerative, and traumatic brain injury with the goal to facilitate early diagnosis of abnormal brain changes. Johannes is also the founding member of the Center for Neuromechanics at Stevens in 2019 and served as its Director from 2022-2024. He received the Stevens Employee Recognition Award for Student-Centricity in 2022 for his extensive efforts to promote undergraduate student research and was recently awarded the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2024.