Medical Flow Physics Laboratory (MFPL)

USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience

Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering

Principal Investigator

  • Niema Pahlevan, PhD

  • - Gordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair in Engineering
  • - Associate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and Medicine
  • - Viterbi School of Engineering, USC
  • - Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, USC
  • - USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience
  • CV

Graduate Students

  • Haonan Meng, BS

  • PhD Student

  • -Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, USC

  • Projects:

  • 1-Advanced mathematical and computational methods for hemodynamics

  • Jiajun Li, MS

  • PhD Student

  • -Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, USC

  • Projects:

  • 1-Physics-based machine learning approaches for cardiovascular diagnostics

Undergraduate and Pre-Med Students

  • Elena Lottich

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

  • -Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC

  • Projects:

  • 1- LV-Aortic Simulator

Previous Group Members

  • Alberto Paredes, MS

  • MS Student

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Product Development Engineer at Integra LifeSciences

  • Aaron M. Wolfson, MD, MS

  • Cardiology Fellow

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, USC

  • Amara Ogbonnaya-Whittlesey MD

  • Postdoctoral Scholar

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Rheumatology fellowship program, NIH/NIAMS

  • Jennifer Miller MD, PhD

  • Pediatric Cardiology Fellow

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Digital Health Fellow at the Center for Body Computing at USC

  • Emad Mogadam MD, MS

  • Medical Resident, Research Associate

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Cardiology Fellow at Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY

  • Jingyi Kang, MS

  • MS Student, Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA

  • Soren Cole, BS

  • Clinical Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Graduate Student at Johns Hopkins University

  • Christie Huang

  • Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Undergraduate Student in Mechanical Engineering at Caltech

  • Jessica Torrey

  • Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Undergraduate Student in Engineering at Harvey Mudd

  • Bryson Rogers

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Associate Engineer in Edge

  • Mahmood Alfayoumi

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Master Student at USC AME

  • Harjit Minhas

  • Research Assistant

  • -Human Biology, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

  • Projects:

  • 1-Physiologically accurate vessel fabrication

  • Anoosha Zaki

  • Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • Junior with a double major in Human Biology and Law, History and Culture at USC

  • Yasaman Yasari, BS

  • Research Assistant

  • First position after MFPL Lab:

  • BS in health promotion and disease prevention from USC

Clinical Collaborators

  1. Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA

  2. -Chief Science Officer, Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI)
  3. -Vice President of Translation and Director of Cardiovascular Research Institute, HMRI
  4. -Professor of Medicine (Clinical Scholar), Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, USC

  5. Projects:

  6. 1-Noninvasive and Early Detection of Acute Cardiovascular Events
  7. 2-Percutaneous left ventricular assist device

  8. Ray Matthews, MD, FACC, FSCAI

  9. -Professor of Clinical Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, USC
  10. -Director of Interventional Cardiology and Catheterization Laboratories, USC

  11. Projects:

  12. 1-Noninvasive measurement of left ventricle end diastolic pressure (LVEDP)
  13. 2-left ventricular-arterial coupling after transcatheter aortic valve replacement

  14. David M Shavelle, MD, FACC, FSCAI

  15. -Medical Director of Adult Cardiology for the MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Long Beach Medical Center

  16. Projects:

  17. 1-LVEDP Variability
  18. 2-Intrinsic Frequency as an instantaneous monitoring of LV-Arterial coupling after percutaneous coronary intervention

  19. Cynthia S. Herrington, MD

  20. -Surgical Director, Heart Transplant Program, Keck School of Medicine of USC
  21. -Associate Professor of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
  22. -Vice-President, Chief of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  23. Projects:

  24. 1-Assist devices for patients with Fontan circulation

  25. Michael W Fong, MD, FACC

  26. -Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Radiology, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, USC

  27. Projects:

  28. 1-iPhone Measurement of LVEF in HF patients

  29. Ben Lin, MD, PhD

  30. -Assistant Professor Of Clinical Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, USC
  31. -Director of Noninvasive Cardiology

  32. Projects:

  33. 1-Next-Generation particle velocimetry techniques for Cardiovascular Flows

  34. Ajay Vaidya, MD, MPH

  35. -Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine , USC
  36. -Associate Medical Director of Heart Failure and Transplant at Keck Medicine of USC

  37. Projects:

  38. 1-Artificial Intelligence (AI) based intervention for heart failure (HF) patients

  39. Kevin S. King , MD

  40. -Professor, Department of Neuroradiology
  41. -Director, Neuro-Imaging Analysis Lab
  42. -Barrow Neurological Institute
  43. -Dignity Health

  44. Projects:

  45. 1-Hemodynamic Mechanisms Linking Aortic Arch Stiffness with Brain Insult in Older Adults
  46. 2-Brain injury in heart failure

  47. Gregory A. Magee, MD MSc FACS FSVS

  48. -Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, Keck Medical Center of USC

  49. Projects:

  50. 1-Hemodynamics of aortic dissection

  51. Andrew L. Cheng, FAAP, FACC

  52. -Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, USC
  53. -Attending Physician, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

  54. Projects:

  55. 1-Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring of Pediatric Patients
  56. 2-In vitro and computational modeling of congenital heart disease

  57. Aaron M. Wolfson, MD, MS

  58. -Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine (Clinician Educator)

  59. Projects:

  60. 1-Artificial Intelligence for Heart Failure Diagnostics
  61. 2-Intrinsic Frequency Analysis of Pulmonary Artery Waveforms