Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Seminar

PRESENTATION: While substantial research has focused on the spatial transmission of human respiratory ejecta, progress has been relatively limited in understanding how the physics of inhalation flow within an exposed subject's airway affects the local transport of pathogen-laden particulates, ultimately influencing infection onset. In the first part of this talk, Dr. Basu will present a pathogen-agnostic fluid dynamics model that explores inhalation-guided pathogen dynamics inside anatomically realistic airway domains and connect the flow outcomes with pathogen-specific virological parameters, such as the viral concentration in liquid particulates emitted by a host. To validate the modeling approach, the resulting transmission metrics in terms of critical exposure durations for infection onset will be compared with established data for smallpox. The modeling framework will then be extended to a circulating pox pathogen, namely mpox, to assess its airborne transmission potential. In the second part of the talk, Dr. Basu will discuss the fluid mechanics driving the rapid onset of bronchial infection after the emergence of initial symptoms in the upper airway. The process is mediated by inhalation of microdroplets created by viscoelastic fragmentation of mucosal substrates at the infected upper respiratory tract during inhalation and explains the briskness of secondary infections, which otherwise cannot be solely explained through tissue-level replication of the invading pathogen. The presented material synergizes fluid physics with virology and will primarily build on computational simulations in full-scale physiological domains, with supporting experiments conducted within 3D-printed geometries and theoretical analysis in anatomy-guided reduced order systems.

PRESENTER: Dr. Saikat Basu is a tenured Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Director of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota State University (SDSU), where he directs the Biomedical and Bioinspired Fluid Dynamics Lab. With a scholarly background in classical fluid mechanics, Basu’s research team develops multi-scale theoretical and computational fluid dynamics models that address complex biophysical systems, including respiratory physiology and tissue microenvironments. These models are validated through collaborations with experimental specialists and supported by simple in-house tabletop tests utilizing 3D-printed anatomical replicas. Dr. Basu's work fosters interdisciplinary collaborations across medical science, biology, pharmacology, virology, immunology, bacteriology, and industries focused on drug delivery, personalized medicine, and device design. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech in 2014, followed by postdoctoral appointments at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan (2014-2016) and the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (2016-2018), before joining SDSU in January 2019. Since then, Dr. Basu has built a globally recognized research program at the intersection of engineering physics and medicine. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2024 and an NIH COBRE RPL Award in 2023. Basu has also been recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering, and his research has garnered attention from major media outlets, including New Scientist, USA Today, Science Daily, and ACS News.