Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 3:00 PM in SAS 4201

Paula A. Vasquez, UNC Chapel Hill

Mathematical modeling of the mucus barrier in human lungs

The first line of defense of human lungs against inhaled pathogens is 
mucus. Inhaled viruses, bacteria and particulates land on the mucus 
layer and diffuse within. These foreign particles are cleared if flow of 
the mucus layer toward the larynx dominates particle diffusion through 
the layer. Yet the flow and diffusive transport properties of mucus 
remain very poorly understood. In this lecture I will survey the 
mathematical challenges in characterizing mucus transport properties. 
The talk will focus on progress of our research group understanding 
remarkable nonlinear phenomena in the oscillatory flow of viscoelastic 
fluids, and explaining why dynamic and spatial microstructural 
characterization is essential in the understanding of mucus transport. 
These research projects involve collaborations at UNC that are either 
inspired by or directly related to experiments carried out in the 
Physics Department and Cystic Fibrosis Center.