Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Seminar: Biomechanics of the Optic Nerve Head in Glaucoma

Arina Korneva, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow

John Hopkins University

Biomechanics of the Optic Nerve Head in Glaucoma

Abstract:  Glaucoma causes progressive loss of vision and eventually leads to blindness. It affects over 4 million people in North America. Studies suggest that the stress or strain in the optic nerve head is elevated in glaucoma and leads to injury of axons responsible for vision. The elevated stress or strain in the optic nerve head stems from a complex contribution from eye-pressure, loading by surrounding ocular tissues, and the microstructure of the optic nerve head. I will describe the pioneering work that determined the factors contributing to the strain and deformation of the optic nerve head in glaucoma, at multiple length scales. The developed methods integrate analyses of the microstructure, mechanical behavior, and tissue biology. The methodology employed advanced microscopy with digital volume correlation and, for the first time, allowed mapping of the microscale deformation of the cells in the optic nerve head tissue in glaucoma. This research provides a framework for integrating studies of mechanical and biological mechanisms of disease in order to understand cell injury not only in glaucoma, but in other soft tissue diseases.

Dr. Arina Korneva is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Ophthalmology, and the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests lie in understanding the interplay between mechanics and biology in order to address challenges in the life sciences and medicine. She has designed novel experimental methods which integrate mechanical characterization with analyses of the tissue and cell microstructure in order to understand remodeling in vascular and ocular diseases. Dr. Korneva received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2018 and her B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012, both in biomedical engineering. She also received a B.S. in biology from Emory University in 2012. Dr. Korneva was recently recognized by MIT as a Rising Star in mechanical engineering.

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