September 24, 2026
Kathryn (Kat) Turk, a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering with Dr. Nicole Pelot and Dr. Warren Grill, has received an F31 predoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The two-year award will support her project, "Designing Electrical Stimulation to Treat Hypertension Using Computational Modeling."
Kathryn's research focuses on baroreceptor activation therapy (BAT), a neural stimulation device that is implanted in the neck to treat heart failure and hypertension. While effective, BAT can produce side effects, such as neck and jaw pain; these side effects limit the tolerable stimulation amplitude and thus also limit therapeutic efficacy.
To design improved BAT, Kathryn will conduct both computational modeling and in vivo studies. She will build populations of models of pig and human BAT using anatomical imaging data from collaborations with the Ludwig lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Shoffstall lab at Case Western Reserve University. She will validate the models against in vivo neural and muscle recordings, as well as published clinical data. Kathryn will then characterize the anatomical bases for differences in neural responses to BAT between pigs and humans, to inform translation of animal studies into clinically relevant predictions for human patients.
Thus, with support from this NIH award, Kathryn will design novel BAT to reduce side effects and improve efficacy in treatment of cardiovascular conditions.