Find our new finite element study of pregnancy on-line in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. This study calculates the mechanical loading on the cervix for two pregnant patients, using geometry derived from MRI scans and material parameters from our previous experiments.
Author Archives: kristinmyerscolumbia
New Publications in Press
1. The Mechanical Role of the Cervix in Pregnancy – A Review
2. A Continous Fiber Distribution Material Model for Human Cervix
Filed under Science
Preterm Birth Statistics – Updated Nov. 2014
The World Health Organization released new statistics on the rate of preterm birth around the world. The bottom line is preterm birth rates are still high. About 15 million babies are born preterm every year. In 2013 almost 1 million babies died from complications related to preterm birth. Increased knowledge on the cause of preterm and better solutions to prevent it from happening are much needed.
Filed under In the News, Science
Collaborative Effort – Columbia Medical Center and School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
The Myers lab is featured in this Summer’s edition of Connections (pages 7-8) – a Newsletter from the Columbia University Medical Center Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The article details our collaborative relationship with clinicians and scientists to unravel the causes of preterm birth. Here, we discuss how we use our finite elements models of pregnancy to understand how the cervix acts as a mechanical barrier to protect the fetus.
Myers Lab at World Congress of Biomechanics 2014
The Myers Lab will be presenting 2 podium and 1 poster presentation at this year’s World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston. These presentations will be a part of the Reproductive Biomechanics and FEBio Symposia.
Reproductive Biomechanics Symposium:
1. The Constitutive Modeling of Human Cervical Tissue, presented by Kristin M.Myers
2. Cervical Tissue Remodeling and Collagen Crosslinks in Infection and Non-Infection Based Preterm Birth Mouse Models, presented by Kyoko Yoshida
FEBio Symposium
3. A Finite Element Model of the Female Pelvic Region during Pregnancy, presented by Kristin M. Myers (first author: Michael Fernandez)
Coauthors: Joy Vink, MD, Ronald Wapner, MD, Mala Mahendroo, PhD, Michael Fernandez, Wang (Frank) Yao, Noelia Zork, MD, Serge Cremers, PhD Honfeng Jiang, PhD, & David Paik, MD
Filed under Conferences, Science
Honoring Alan Wineman at USNCTAM 2014
The Myers lab had the pleasure to join fellow mechanics colleagues and other former students to honor Alan Wineman in his 50th year of teaching at the University of Michigan at this year’s USNCTAM meeting at MSU. Our work in trying to understand and model the complex collagen remodeling behavior of cervical tissue during pregnancy is directly inspired by Prof. Wineman’s work in scission and crossliking of rubbers. Kudos, Alan, to an amazing career and inspiring so many students!
Alan Wineman and Kristin Myers
Filed under Conferences, People, Science
WSJ Article on Bed Rest and Preterm Birth
A recent Wall Street Journal Article (published: Tuesday, July 16th, 2013) discusses the possible detrimental effects of long-term bed rest during pregnancy. Often bed rest is prescribed to prevent preterm birth due to premature cervical dilation (aka cervical insufficiency). However, since not much is known about the mechanics of cervical remodeling and dilation, the efficacy of bed rest to prevent preterm birth is unknown.
Filed under In the News
ASME SBC 2013 PhD Competition
Congratulations to Kyoko for winning first place at this year’s ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference PhD student competition in Sunriver, Oregon. The title of her presentation was, “Cervical Collagen Network Remodeling in Normal and Disrupted Parturition Mouse Models “.
Filed under Science
Cervical Tissue Remodeling During Pregnancy
Our paper entitled “Interstitial growth and remodeling of biological tissues: Tissue composition as state variables” reviews the latest literature of cervical tissue remodeling during pregnancy and details a constitutive remodeling framework for evoling tissue properties based on the evolution of the tissue’s microstructure. This paper was co-authored by Gerard Ateshian and is available online.
Society of Gynecologic Investigation 2013 Meeting
The Myers lab presented two posters at this years SGI meeting in Orlando Florida. Both posters presented our investigation into the correlation between cervical mechanical strength and collagen crosslink density during cervical remodeling. Here, Kyoko explains her methodology to determine the swelling characteristics of the cervix during pregnancy.
Filed under Conferences, Science
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