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I would like to thank my fellow research group members, Matt Danley, Katelyn France, Sonia Li, and Niko Wallace, for making group meetings enjoyable and something to look forward to.Specifically, I would like to thank Sonia Li for tolerating me as a mentor, and Matt Danley for making the long days in the lab tolerable. Even though I will be gone and forever missed, I look forward to seeing all the work and the accomplishments this group will achieve in the future.

The prediction of risk to the patient in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) is a significant challenge and the subject of much active research. In the present work, a combination of mouse model experiments and computer simulations was used to explore potential biomarkers that correlate with mouse lifespan, used as a surrogate for risk of a catastrophic event. Image-based, mouse-specific fluid-structure-interaction models were developed for Fbln4 SMKO mice (n = 10) at ages two and six months. The results of the simulations were used to quantify potential biofluidic biomarkers, complementing the geometrical biomarkers obtained directly from the images. Comparing the different geometrical and biofluidic biomarkers to the mouse lifespan, it was found that mean oscillatory shear index (OSI mean ) and minimum time-averaged wall shear stress (TAWSS min ) at six months showed the largest correlation with lifespan (r 2 = 0.70, 0.56), with both correlations being positive (i.e., mice with high OSI mean and high TAWSS min tended to live longer). When change between two and six months was considered, the change in TAWSS min showed a much stronger correlation than OSI mean (r 2 = 0.75 vs. 0.24), and the correlation was negative (i.e., mice with increasing TAWSS min over this period tended to live less long). The results highlight potential biomarkers of ATAA outcomes that can be obtained through noninvasive imaging and computational simulations.

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