Martin Pfaller

Martin R. Pfaller is an Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics (Cardiology) in the group of Alison L. Marsden. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, working with Wolfgang A. Wall. During his Ph.D., he validated an efficient yet physiologically accurate boundary condition to account for the mechanical support of the heart within its surroundings, which has been adopted by various research groups worldwide. He further demonstrated how projection-based model order reduction could speed up model personalization from patient data, such as magnetic resonance imaging or blood pressure measurements. His current work focuses on cardiovascular fluid dynamics. He developed reduced-physics models to make blood flow simulations faster and more reliable. Further, he developed a fluid-solid-growth interaction model in blood vessels. His future research will predict the heart’s long-term function in heart diseases, supported by an NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) and Stanford MCHRI Instructor K Award Support. He will quantify the risk of heart failure after a heart attack with a stability analysis validated with imaging data in swine and humans. This research will improve our understanding of biomechanical mechanisms leading to heart failure and help to identify patients at risk, enable personalized therapies, and facilitate the optimal design of medical devices. As an Assistant Professor, Martin will start his research group at Yale University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in July 2024.