Eunjung Kim

Postdoctoral Research Associate

B.S., Ewha W. University, Seoul, Korea, 2002
Ph.D., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, 2009

Research Interests

My research interests are mathematical modeling, applied partial differential equations, and scientific computing with applications in biomechanics and biology.  Currently, I am studying mechanical properties of fibrin network in blood clot.

My thesis research focused on modeling the mechanics of biological soft tissues, in particular Articular cartilage. Articular cartilage is a resilient soft tissue that serves to support load in diarthrodial joints such as the knee, shoulder and hip. Cartilage can be idealized as a biphasic mixture that is comprised of a solid extracellular matrix (ECM) saturated by interstitial fluid. Cartilage ECM is maintained by a sparse population of cells called chondrocytes, which are surrounded by the pericellular matrix (PCM).  Since cartilage has no blood vessel and no nerve endings, cell metabolic activity is highly dependent upon the mechanical characteristics of the local extracellular environment.  My research was motivated by the need to quantify these cell-matrix relationships. I used a transient finite element model pertaining to cells and the ECM subject to dynamic compressive loading and boundary element method (BEM) for characterizing site-specific material properties in the local environment of articular cartilage. The BEM was integrated with a nonlinear optimization technique to determine elastic stiffness and the Poisson's ratio by solving an inverse problem of experimental data.

Selected Publications

• E Kim, F Guilak and MA Haider, An Axisymmetric Boundary Element Model for Estimation of In Situ Pericellular Matrix Properties in Articular Cartilage, submitted.
• MA Haider, BA Benedict, E Kim and F Guilak, Computational modeling of cell mechanics in articular cartilage, submitted.
• E Kim, F Guilak and MA Haider, The dynamic mechanical environment of the chondrocyte: A biphasic finite element model of cell-matrix interactions under cyclic compressive loading, Journal of biomechanical engineering (2008): Vol. 130(6).

Please direct questions and comments to: ekim9@nd.edu