Dr. Elias Balaras has received a two-year, $279,125 National Institutes of Health grant for the project “Computational modeling of right ventricular intracardiac flow in repaired Tetralogy of Fallot.” The project is a collaborative effort with pediatric cardiologists at the Children’s Research Institute. The main focus is patients with “repaired” congenital heart disease (CHD), who typically undergo life-saving intervention as a neonate. While most patients after surgical repair reach adulthood, there are significant morbidities such as reduced exercise capacity and heart failure. The proposed work focuses on the dilemma of optimal timing in pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) for Tetralogy of Fallot patients, which minimizes such risks and improves quality of life. Dr. Balaras’ lab will develop advanced computational tools that starting from low resolution imaging data will reproduce the details of the biomechanical state of the right ventricle and surrounding vessels to identify biomarkers that correlate with the optimal timing of PVR.