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Lymphatic Pumping
We have recently developed a model of pumping by chains of contractile lymphangions in a conducting lymphatic vessel. We investigated the effectiveness of pumping against adverse pressure gradients of different sizes as a function of the form of contraction coupling among the lymphangions. We explained the superior pumping efficacy of simultaneous contraction in terms of the coordinated opening and closing of the valves between the successive lymphangions. This work is described in:
Hallie Elich, Aaron Barrett, Varun Shankar, Aaron L. Fogelson, Pump efficacy in a fluid-structure-interaction model of a chain of contracting lymphangions, Biomechanics and Mechanical Biology, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s10237-021-01486-w.
This work was done in collaboration with Hallie Elich (Utah), Varun Shankar (Utah), and Aaron Barrett (Utah) and was supported in part by NSF Grants NSF RTG-1148230 and DMS-1716898 and by NHLBI Grant 1U01HL143336.
Pumping by Ciliated Tentacles
A long while ago we used the immersed boundary method to study pumping by ciliated tentacles motivated by wanting to understand the use of this mechanism in marine organisms known as bryozoans. This work is described in:
Daniel Grunbaum, David J. Eyre, and Aaron L. Fogelson, Functional geometry of ciliated tentacular arrays in active suspension feeders, Journal of Experimental Biology, 201, (1998), 2575-2589.
This work is included here because an animation of the pumping is fun to watch.
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