Beyond Myocytes: Benchmarking Microstructural Heterogeneity in Cardiac Electrophysiology

Research topic/area

Computermodelle des Herzens

Type of thesis

Bachelor / Master

Start time

-

Application deadline

31.12.2026

Duration of the thesis

-

Description

Motivation
Heart muscle contraction is determined by excitation waves traveling through its tissue. While traditionally at- tributed solely to cardiomyocytes (CM), fibroblasts (FB) are increasingly recognised to electrically couple to CM and thus modulate excitation spread.

Student Project
We employ the extracellular-membrane-intracellular (EMI) model [1], which explicitly resolves CM and their membranes within the computational mesh to capture the micro-structural behavior of excitation spread. The aim of this thesis is to extend EMI-based simulations, using the cardiac electrophysiology simulator open- CARP [3], to investigate CM-FB interactions in spatially extended tissue and thereby investigate how FB presence modulates excitation propagation in cardiac tissue. To this end, we will:
a) vary the CM/FB ratio (sweep over the number n of FB),
b) vary the spatial distribution of FB (sweep over where these n FB are placed),
c) vary the microstructural arrangement (CM-FB coupling types and FB distribution patterns)

Your tasks will include:
• Literature research on the spatial organization of FB in cardiac tissue (e.g. using histological studies),
• Construct meshes accounting for this spatial organization starting from a given single-CM geometry,
• Assess under which conditions (variations in FB presence) excitation spread succeeds or fails

[1] Tveito et al. Modeling Excitable Tissue: The EMI Framework. Simula Springer Briefs on Computing. Springer (2020)
[2] Giardini et al., Nat Cardiovasc Res (2025), doi: 10.1038/s44161-025-00728-9
[3] https://opencarp.org

Requirement

Requirements for students

• Programmier-Grundkenntnisse, Interessen an Medizintechnik

Faculty departments

• Engineering sciences
  Electrical engineering & information technologies
  Informatics
  Biomedical Engineering
  Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Supervision

Title, first name, last name

M.Sc. Joshua Steyer, M.Sc. Jan-Erik Duhme

Organizational unit

Institut für Biomedizinische Technik

Email address

joshua.steyer@kit.edu

Link to personal homepage/personal page

Website

Application via email

Application documents

• Cover letter
• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcript

E-Mail Address for application
Senden Sie die oben genannten Bewerbungsunterlagen bitte per Mail an joshua.steyer@kit.edu


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