Annelise Tucker, “Does Hypertension Promote Drug Particle Intake and Distribution Across Cancer Cells?”
Mentor: Mahsa Dabagh, Biomedical Engineering

In medicine, it is not uncommon for a patient to have more than one condition that is contributing to their health at a given time. With around 45% of adults ages 20+ being affected by hypertension (CDC, 2017) and 38.3% of adults being diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime (NIH, 2018), it is possible an adult may be diagnosed with both conditions. Due to this, it is important to know how each condition may impact the other. Our 3D cube model was created using COMSOL 5.6 and consists of two main components, the extra cellular matrix and two different sized cancer cells, modeled as 3D spheres. Both “solid mechanics” physics as well as a “transport of diluted species across porous media” were applied to the model. A boundary load of 17,332 Pascals was applied along with a Poisson’s ratio of 0.495 for each simulation. Values for the Young’s Modulus of both the extracellular matrix and cancer cell were chosen based off the type of cancer cell provided by a previous research study (Wullkopf et.al, 2018). Resulting 3D von Mises stress slices, and volume graphs were produced showing the resultant stress applied across the extracellular matrix and cancer cells throughout the model. MATLAB graphs were also created to compare the various cancer cell types and to take a closer look at how the stress changes with a changing Young’s Modulus. The initial results, comparing the von Mises stresses across the model show that ECM stiffness has significant impact on cancer cell stresses and displacement. The largest differences in stress across the model are seen when measurements were taken inside and directly below the cancer cell.