Principal Investigator | Clinical Collaborators | Ph.D. Students | Alumni

The team at the Airway Biomechanics Laboratory at the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Guilherme Garcia, Clinical Collaborators Dr. John Rhee and Dr. Tucker Woodson. 

Principal Investigator 

 

Dr. Guilherme Garcia, Ph.D.

Dr. Guilherme Garcia received his Ph.D. in Physics (2001–2005) from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applied to nasal airflow, otolaryngology, and nasal drug delivery at The Hamner Institutes of Health Sciences at Research Triangle Park, NC (2005-2008). He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in computational biology and airway surface liquid volume regulation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2008-2011). Dr. Garcia joined the Medical College of Wisconsin in October of 2012 as an Assistant Professor in the research-track in the Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences. In July 2016, Dr. Garcia moved to a tenure-track Assistant Professor position and became one of the founding members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at MCW.  Dr. Garcia regularly teaches the course Transport Phenomena, an introduction to fluid mechanics and its applications in biomedical engineering, as well as Applied Finite Element Analysis, an introduction to computational solid mechanics and computational fluid dynamics.  

 

View Airway Lab Academics

 

Clinical Collaborators

 

Dr. John Rhee, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Rhee is Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He specializes in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Rhee has held numerous national positions, including being the current President of the American Board of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery and past Editor-in-Chief of JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery (recently renamed as Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine). Dr. Rhee has coauthored more than 100 publications in topics such as nasal airway obstruction and quality of life instruments for skin cancer. He has received multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including being the Principal Investigator of two R01 projects in collaboration with the Airway Lab, namely “Computer modeling of surgical outcomes for nasal airway obstruction” (2009-2013) and “Creating Virtual Surgery Targets & Methods to Improve Outcomes of Nasal Surgery” (2014-2018). Dr. Rhee is our main clinical collaborator in the project Virtual Surgery Planning for Nasal Airway Obstruction.

Learn more about Dr. Rhee | Learn more about Virtual Surgery Planning

 

Dr. Tucker Woodson, M.D.

Dr. Woodson is Professor and Chief of Surgical Sleep Medicine in the Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Woodson has held many national and international leadership positions related to sleep medicine, including being president of the International Surgical Sleep Society and serving on various committees of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Otolaryngology. He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in obstructive sleep apnea and has lectured worldwide on issues related to sleep medicine. Dr. Woodson has coauthored more than 100 publications on topics such as surgical techniques and the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Woodson is our main clinical collaborator in the project Biomechanics of Upper Airway Collapse in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Learn more about Dr. Woodson | Learn more about Biomechanics of Upper Airway Collapse 

 

Ph.D. Student

 

Shamudra Dey

Shamudra’s Ph.D. research focuses on developing and validating computational methods to optimize drug delivery via nasal sprays and dry powder inhalers. The project is motivated by two goals: (1) improving understanding of nasal spray particle–wall interactions and post-deposition liquid motion to enable targeted delivery to the posterior nasal cavity, and (2) investigating critical quality attributes of dry powder inhalers to optimize deposition in the laryngopharynx to treat laryngopharyngeal reflux, which will reduce side effects. To achieve these aims, Shamudra is developing advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, validating the CFD simulations with experimental studies, and examining how particle size, particle-wall interactions, and breathing profiles influence the regional drug deposition throughout the upper airway."

Learn more about Shamudra Dey | Contact Shamudra Dey

Alumni

Alumni of the Airway Biomechanics Laboratory include postdoctoral researchers, master's students, graduate students and otolaryngology residents.  The team at the Airway Lab is very proud to have had the opportunity to work with each of these amazing individuals, and we are excited to follow their developing careers in the biomedical engineering community and beyond.

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