BAE Seminar - Clay Clay Swackhamer, Phd, PE
March 27, 2024 4:00PM - 5:00PM
Zoom and Room 208 Farrall Hall
“Engineering all along the digestive tract: model foods with designer breakdown kinetics, multiphysics CFD modeling, and microbiome engineering”
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
4:00 PM EST
Farrall Hall room 208
Zoom: https://msu.zoom.us/j/93159953471
Abstract: Despite its role in health, the digestive system has always been something of a black box. Recently, developments in advanced gastrointestinal simulators, multiphysics computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, and population dynamic models of gut microorganisms have allowed aspects of the system to be engineered for the first time. In this seminar, three mini-case studies will be presented: the development of whey protein hydrogels with designer breakdown kinetics, the use of a multiphysics CFD model to study fluid flow during peristaltic motion of the gastrointestinal tract, and a new approach to engineer the taxonomic composition of the colonic microbiome by combining a library of dietary fibers with varying physicochemical properties and a population dynamic model of gut microbes. These advances enable engineers and scientists to gain a better understanding of how foods can be designed to achieve targeted effects on digestive processes and whole-body health.
Bio: Clay is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Bruce Hamaker’s lab in the Department of Food Science at Purdue University. Clay completed a BS in Biological Engineering at Penn State and a PhD in Biological Systems Engineering at UC Davis. His graduate work involved investigating the mechanical breakdown of solid foods during in vitro gastric digestion with simulated peristalsis. Funded by a USDA-NIFA postdoctoral fellowship, Clay’s current research focuses on understanding the effect of dietary fibers with varying chemical and physical structures on the gut microbiome.
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