Novel Application of Acoustic Beamforming for Non-Invasive Profiling of Cardiac Fibrosis
CWSF · 2026 Disease & Illness Gold Medal
Overview
Heart disease currently affects roughly 6 million Canadians, with emerging research indicating that up to one-third of individuals with underlying cardiometabolic conditions will develop myocardial fibrosis. Fibroblast-targeted CAR-T cell therapy has emerged in preclinical studies as a highly promising method to actively regress scar tissue and restore heart function. However, clinicians currently lack a non-invasive tool to spatially monitor heterogeneous fibroblast clearance. My project addresses this research gap through a proposed non-invasive, circuit-based array to acquire multichannel cardiac acoustics. A beamforming algorithm is proposed, reconstructing irregular ventricular wall vibrations caused by fibroblasts into localized acoustic maps based on chaotic scattering. By leveraging an in vitro hydrogel phantom with graded chemical crosslinking to simulate fibrotic stiffness, the proposed non-invasive device validates its ability to detect localized acoustic signatures and quantify their impact.
Awards (4)
- Young Scientist Award
- Special Award
- Gold Medal
- Selected for CWSF 2026
Competition history
- CWSF 2026
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