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Dr Claire Conway

B. Eng., PhD

Contact Details

Lecturer
Biomedical Engineering
ENG-3025

T: +353 (0)91 493552
E: cconway@nuigalway.ie
W: @claireconwayphd
 
researcher

Biography

Dr. Claire Conway graduated first in her class of Mechanical Engineering in NUI Galway in 2007. Following this she received a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) to carry out research in Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway.  Her doctoral research was in the area of computational biomechanics, examining coronary stent implantations. This work resulted in recommendations for the United States’ regulatory agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on how best to simulate a virtual medical device environment, with particular focus on coronary stents.
In 2013, Dr. Conway received an international fellowship as a United States Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellow in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Division and in partnership with the FDA. Her primary postdoctoral research examined the clinical consequences of coronary stent fracture. This project investigated medical device failure using a complementary mix of computational, bench-top and animal model techniques.
Dr. Conway joined the Discipline of Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway in June 2017, as a fixed term lecturer. Dr. Conway aims to further her research into vascular medical interventional technologies, looking at both short-term and long-term behaviour in devices such as coronary and peripheral stents, and also to look at valvular device performance based on clinical metrics. Her research will also provide insights into regulatory science and research for medical device CE marking and FDA approval processes.



Research Interests

As an engineer and scientist, using state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques, Dr. Conway explores medical device performance and provides insight into clinical adverse events following treatment. Her work is at the intersection of regulatory, academic and industrial interests, focusing on research at the interface of engineering and medicine.
Dr. Conway seeks to understand role of disease structure in relation to atherosclerosis and valvular calcification. These conditions are often treated with structural implants, such as stents or prosthetic valves, and these interventions can benefit greatly from mechanics-based engineering insights. Using finite element simulations, she works to predict patient response to structural implants, paying particular attention to disease representation and the role of calcification in device failure. By designing sophisticated bench-top mechanical test-rigs, she determines structural implant performance, validates computational predictions, and further advances our understanding of device performance with more realistic physiological boundary condition assessment for engineering analyses.
Her research interests include:
o   Finite Element Analysis
o   Cardiovascular Biomechanics
o   Medical Implant Design and Performance
o   Soft Tissue-Implant Interactions
o   Mechanical Fatigue and Damage Mechanics
o   Whole Heart Modelling




Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2017) 'Stents: Biomechanics, Biomaterials, and Insights from Computational Modeling'
Karanasiou, Georgia S and Papafaklis, Michail I and Conway, Claire and Michalis, Lampros K and Tzafriri, Rami and Edelman, Elazer R and Fotiadis, Dimitrios I (2017) 'Stents: Biomechanics, Biomaterials, and Insights from Computational Modeling'. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 45 (4):853-872 [Details]
(2017) 'Numerical Simulation of Stent Angioplasty with Predilation: An Investigation into Lesion Constitutive Representation and Calcification Influence'
Conway, C,McGarry, JP,Edelman, ER,McHugh, PE (2017) 'Numerical Simulation of Stent Angioplasty with Predilation: An Investigation into Lesion Constitutive Representation and Calcification Influence'. Annals Of Biomedical Engineering, 45 :2244-2252 [DOI] [Details]
(2016) 'Structural Mechanics Predictions Relating to Clinical Coronary Stent Fracture in a 5 Year Period in FDA MAUDE Database'
Everett, Kay D and Conway, Claire and Desany, Gerard J and Baker, Brian L and Choi, Gilwoo and Taylor, Charles A and Edelman, Elazer R (2016) 'Structural Mechanics Predictions Relating to Clinical Coronary Stent Fracture in a 5 Year Period in FDA MAUDE Database'. Annals of biomedical engineering, 44 (2):391-403 [Details]
(2016) 'Vascular Response to Experimental Stent Malapposition and Under-Expansion'
O’Brien, Caroline C and Lopes, Augusto C and Kolandaivelu, Kumaran and Kunio, Mie and Brown, Jonathan and Kolachalama, Vijaya B and Conway, Claire and Bailey, Lynn and Markham, Peter and Costa, Marco and others (2016) 'Vascular Response to Experimental Stent Malapposition and Under-Expansion'. Annals of biomedical engineering, 44 (7):2251-2260 [Details]
(2016) 'Computer Simulation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Implanted Biodegradable Stents in a Remodelling Artery'
Boland, EL,Grogan, JA,Conway, C,Mchugh, PE (2016) 'Computer Simulation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Implanted Biodegradable Stents in a Remodelling Artery'. Jom, 68 :1198-1203 [DOI] [Details]
(2015) 'Computational Modeling for Analysis and Design of Metallic Biodegradable Stents'
McHugh, PE,Grogan, JA,Conway, C,Boland, E (2015) 'Computational Modeling for Analysis and Design of Metallic Biodegradable Stents'. Journal Of Medical Devices-Transactions Of The Asme, 9 [DOI] [Details]
(2014) 'Modelling of Atherosclerotic Plaque for Use in a Computational Test-Bed for Stent Angioplasty'
Conway, C,McGarry, JP,McHugh, PE (2014) 'Modelling of Atherosclerotic Plaque for Use in a Computational Test-Bed for Stent Angioplasty'. Annals Of Biomedical Engineering, 42 :2425-2439 [DOI] [Details]
(2012) 'A Computational Test-Bed to Assess Coronary Stent Implantation Mechanics Using a Population-Specific Approach'
Conway, C and Sharif, F and McGarry, JP and McHugh, PE (2012) 'A Computational Test-Bed to Assess Coronary Stent Implantation Mechanics Using a Population-Specific Approach'. Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology, 3 (4):374-387 [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2017) 'Arterial and Atherosclerotic Plaque Biomechanics with Application to Stent Angioplasty Modeling'
O’Reilly, Br\'\ian L and Conway, Claire and McGarry, J Patrick and McHugh, Peter E (2017) 'Arterial and Atherosclerotic Plaque Biomechanics with Application to Stent Angioplasty Modeling' In: Springer International Publishing. [Details]

Conference Publications

  Year Publication
(2014) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Karanasiou, Georgia S and Conway, Claire and Papafaklis, Michail I and Lopes, Augusto C and Stefanou, Kostas A and Athanasiou, Lambros S and Michalis, Lampros K and Edelman, Elazer R and Fotiadis, Dimitrios I (2014) Finite element analysis of stent implantation in a three-dimensional reconstructed arterial segment Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE , pp.5623-5626 [Details]

Conference Paper

  Year Publication
(2008) A novel methodology for coronary stent analysis and design.
Conway C., Harrison, N., Connolley, T., McGarry, P. and McHugh, P. E. (2008) A novel methodology for coronary stent analysis and design. Conference Paper [Details]

Correction

  Year Publication
(2016) Computer Simulation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Implanted Biodegradable Stents in a Remodelling Artery (vol 68, pg 1198, 2016).
Boland, EL,Grogan, JA,Conway, C,Mchugh, PE (2016) Computer Simulation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Implanted Biodegradable Stents in a Remodelling Artery (vol 68, pg 1198, 2016). Correction [DOI] [Details]

External Collaborators

  Name Organisation / Institute Country Description of Collaboration
Prof. Ellen Roche Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S.A.
Prof. Kumaran Kolandaivelu Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S.A.
Prof. Elazer Edelman Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S.A.