Research Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Education
Biography
PhD 2007 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Sofia, Bulgaria
2008-2009, University of Zurich, Biochemistry department, Zurich, Switzerland
2008-present, University of Southern California, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, Los Angeles, California
2010- present, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Los Angeles, California
Research Summary
Research topics:
Acoustic streaming in biological tissues;
Injectable intranasal stimulator in treatment of dry eye disease;
Oxygen transport measurements in the vitreous humor;
Drug transport in microfluidic devices;
Glaucoma perfusion model. Glaucoma fluid transport experimentation and mathematical modeling with ocular tissues related to drug distribution, directed towards the development of therapeutic drugs for glaucoma patients;
Preferential movement of Prohance in convection-based perfusion model using ex-vivo bovine eyes;
Fluid dynamics, transport phenomena, and mechanical properties related to eye diseases (AMD, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma) and ocular drug delivery;
Effect of shear flow on clustering and aggregation; Oscillatory flow between two hemispheres for shearing protein solution;
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of ex-vivo tissues and live animals. Measurements of surrogate drug distribution in ocular tissue by MRI techniques using various contrast agents;
Fluid dynamics and measurement of physical properties of ocular tissues corresponding to eye-related diseases and drug distribution in the tissues. Mathematical Analysis and Measurement of Ocular Transport Parameters (diffusion coefficient, permeability, etc);
Teaching:
Engineering Thermodynamics, AME 310
Professional Societies:
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Association for Research on Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS/BOOKS
Heat and Mass Transfer
Annals of New York Academy of Sciences
Book: Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems, George A. Truskey, Fan Yuan, and David F. Katz
Open positions:
Currently we accept candidates (postdoctoral fellows and graduate students) who have their own external funding. If interested, please email your CV and a portfolio to Prof. Anita Penkova (penkova@usc.edu)
