About

Britta Simon is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of German Studies at the University of Washington, where she also serves as the Director of Advising and Academic Services. She holds a PhD from the University of Washington and a master's degree in Medieval Latin and Medieval German from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany. Her fields of interest include applied linguistics, historical linguistics, literature, and medieval music. Britta Simon has a diverse background that includes an academic position at the University of Iowa and work for Microsoft Corporation in localization, terminology management, and natural language processing. Over the past 15 years, she has been engaged in administrative roles in student affairs and academic program management at the University of Washington. She has taught a variety of courses, including German language courses, medieval literature, and career and job-readiness courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, she has experience as a medieval music DJ, hosting her own radio show for 10 years. She enjoys teaching students and supporting them in navigating their path toward graduation.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Composite material
• Medicine
• Biomedical engineering
• Chemistry
• Internal medicine
• Surgery
• Engineering
• Physics
• Structural engineering
• Mechanics

Selected publications

• Issue Information

  ANZ Journal of Surgery · 2023-05-01

  paratextOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Optimizing the Porohyperelastic Response of a Layered Compliance Matched Vascular Graft to Promote Luminal Self-Cleaning

  Journal of Biomechanical Engineering · 2022 · 2 citations

  • Materials science
  • Biomedical engineering
  • Composite material

  Thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia have remained the major failure mechanisms of small-diameter vascular grafts used in bypass procedures. While most efforts to reduce thrombogenicity have used a biochemical surface modification approach, the use of local mechanical phenomena to aid in this goal has received somewhat less attention. In this work, the mechanical, fluid transport, and geometrical properties of a layered and porous vascular graft are optimized within a porohyperelastic finite element framework to maximize self-cleaning via luminal reversal fluid velocity (into the lumen). This is expected to repel platelets as well as inhibit the formation of and/or destabilize adsorbed protein layers thereby reducing thrombogenic potential. A particle swarm optimization algorithm was utilized to maximize luminal reversal fluid velocity while also compliance matching our graft to a target artery (rat aorta). The maximum achievable luminal reversal fluid velocity was approximately 246 μm/s without simultaneously optimizing for host compliance. Simultaneous optimization of reversal flow and compliance resulted in a luminal reversal fluid velocity of 59 μm/s. Results indicate that a thick highly permeable compressible inner layer and a thin low permeability incompressible outer layer promote intraluminal reversal fluid velocity. Future research is needed to determine the feasibility of fabricating such a layered and optimized graft and verify its ability to improve hemocompatibility.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Porohyperelastic-Transport-Swelling Finite Element Models: Applications and Material Properties for Large Arteries

  CRC Press eBooks · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Materials science
  • Composite material
  • Structural engineering

  This communication summarizes a presentation at the Third International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 1 and describes the development and applications of porohyperelastic-transport-swelling (PHETS) formulations and finite element models (FEMs) for the analysis of soft, hydrated rabbit aortic tissues. These PHETS models include both material and geometric nonlinearity and coupled transport of mobile tissue fluid and species dissolved in the fluid. Corresponding Eulerian and Lagrangian field theories allow identification of material property functions and form the basis for the FEMs. Data-reduction procedures provided intimal and medial elasticity, permeability, and diffusion-convection transport properties. PHETS FEM results compare well with data from our laboratory and data presented in the literature for pressure-radius response, free tissue fluid flux, and diffusive-convective flux of labeled mobile albumin in the walls of rabbit aortas.

  PublisherDOI

• A Finite Element Model for Mixed Porohyperelasticity with Transport, Swelling, and Growth

  PLoS ONE · 2016-04-14 · 25 citations

  articleOpen access

  The purpose of this manuscript is to establish a unified theory of porohyperelasticity with transport and growth and to demonstrate the capability of this theory using a finite element model developed in MATLAB. We combine the theories of volumetric growth and mixed porohyperelasticity with transport and swelling (MPHETS) to derive a new method that models growth of biological soft tissues. The conservation equations and constitutive equations are developed for both solid-only growth and solid/fluid growth. An axisymmetric finite element framework is introduced for the new theory of growing MPHETS (GMPHETS). To illustrate the capabilities of this model, several example finite element test problems are considered using model geometry and material parameters based on experimental data from a porcine coronary artery. Multiple growth laws are considered, including time-driven, concentration-driven, and stress-driven growth. Time-driven growth is compared against an exact analytical solution to validate the model. For concentration-dependent growth, changing the diffusivity (representing a change in drug) fundamentally changes growth behavior. We further demonstrate that for stress-dependent, solid-only growth of an artery, growth of an MPHETS model results in a more uniform hoop stress than growth in a hyperelastic model for the same amount of growth time using the same growth law. This may have implications in the context of developing residual stresses in soft tissues under intraluminal pressure. To our knowledge, this manuscript provides the first full description of an MPHETS model with growth. The developed computational framework can be used in concert with novel in-vitro and in-vivo experimental approaches to identify the governing growth laws for various soft tissues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A porohyperelastic finite element model of the eye: the influence of stiffness and permeability on intraocular pressure and optic nerve head biomechanics

  Computer Methods in Biomechanics & Biomedical Engineering · 2015-07-21 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  Progressively deteriorating visual field is a characteristic feature of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), and the biomechanics of optic nerve head (ONH) is believed to be important in its onset. We used porohyperelasticity to model the complex porous behavior of ocular tissues to better understand the effect variations in ocular material properties can have on ONH biomechanics. An axisymmetric model of the human eye was constructed to parametrically study how changes in the permeabilities of retina-Bruch's-choroid complex (k(RBC)), sclera k(sclera), uveoscleral pathway (k(UVSC)) and trabecular meshwork k(TM) as well as how changes in the stiffness of the lamina cribrosa (LC) and sclera affect IOP, LC strains, and translaminar interstitial pressure gradients (TLIPG). Decreasing k(RBC) from 5 × 10(- 12) to 5 × 10(- 13) m/s increased IOP and LC strains by 17%, and TLIPG by 21%. LC strains increased by 13% and 9% when the scleral and LC moduli were decreased by 48% and 50%, respectively. In addition to the trabecular meshwork and uveoscleral pathway, the retina-Bruch's-choroid complex had an important effect on IOP, LC strains, and TLIPG. Changes in k(RBC) and scleral modulus resulted in nonlinear changes in the IOP, and LC strains especially at the lowest k(TM) and k(UVSC). This study demonstrates that porohyperelastic modeling provides a novel method for computationally studying the biomechanical environment of the ONH. Porohyperelastic simulations of ocular tissues may help provide further insight into the complex biomechanical environment of posterior ocular tissues in POAG.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A one-dimensional mixed porohyperelastic transport swelling finite element model with growth

  Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials/Journal of mechanical behavior of biomedical materials · 2013-05-07 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A Finite Element Study on Variations in Mass Transport in Stented Porcine Coronary Arteries Based on Location in the Coronary Arterial Tree

  Journal of Biomechanical Engineering · 2013-05-09 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Drug-eluting stents have a significant clinical advantage in late-stage restenosis due to the antiproliferative drug release. Understanding how drug transport occurs between coronary arterial locations can better help guide localized drug treatment options. Finite element models with properties from specific porcine coronary artery sections (left anterior descending (LAD), right (RCA); proximal, middle, distal regions) were created for stent deployment and drug delivery simulations. Stress, strain, pore fluid velocity, and drug concentrations were exported at different time points of simulation (0-180 days). Tests indicated that the highest stresses occurred in LAD sections. Higher-than-resting homeostatic levels of stress and strain existed at upwards of 3.0 mm away from the stented region, whereas concentration of species only reached 2.7 mm away from the stented region. Region-specific concentration showed 2.2 times higher concentrations in RCA artery sections at times corresponding to vascular remodeling (peak in the middle segment) compared to all other segments. These results suggest that wall transport can occur differently based on coronary artery location. Awareness of peak growth stimulators and where drug accumulation occurs in the vasculature can better help guide local drug delivery therapies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Location-Dependent Coronary Artery Diffusive and Convective Mass Transport Properties of a Lipophilic Drug Surrogate Measured Using Nonlinear Microscopy

  Pharmaceutical Research · 2012-12-06 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Deformationally dependent fluid transport properties of porcine coronary arteries based on location in the coronary vasculature

  Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials/Journal of mechanical behavior of biomedical materials · 2012-10-13 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Wall Stress Reduction in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms as a Result of Polymeric Endoaortic Paving

  Annals of Biomedical Engineering · 2011-02-24 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• S. Saigal

  64 shared

• G. Bart

  Delft University of Technology

  64 shared

• T. A. Cruse

  64 shared

• Masato Tanaka

  Azbil (Japan)

  64 shared

• Sudipta Sengupta

  64 shared

• Jonathan P. Vande Geest

  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

  27 shared

• Paul Rigby

  University of Stirling

  13 shared

• A. L. Baldwin

  9 shared

Education

• M.A., Medieval Latin and Medieval German

  Albert-Ludwigs-Universität

• Ph.D.

  University of Washington