Dr Sathish Kumar Marimuthu

  • Research Associate (Biomedical Engineering)

email: SathishKumar.Marimuthu@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns: He/him/his

Level 3, Pearce Lodge, University Avenue, University of Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland, United Kingdom, G12 8QQ

Import to contacts

Biography

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2025-2029) at the University of Glasgow, working under the guidance of Dr. Sean McGinty (James Watt School of Engineering) and Professor Nicholas Hill (Mathematics & Statistics). My research focuses on using computational modeling to assist in cardiovascular and neurosurgical planning, predict immediate and long-term surgical outcomes, and enhance implant designs to improve post-surgery patient survivability and quality of life. I am particularly interested in the mathematical modeling of surgery-induced deformations and adaptations (growth and remodeling) in blood vessels and the brain.

My long-term goal is to develop next-generation surgical planning and navigation systems by integrating mechanical modeling with augmented and virtual reality platforms for treating cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

Previously, I was an industry-sponsored PhD student (2020-2024) at the SofTMech Centre, Mathematics & Statistics, University of Glasgow, jointly funded by the EPSRC and Terumo Aortic Ltd, UK. My PhD research at the SoftMech Centre, in collaboration with Terumo Aortic, focused on developing a computational tool to assist in surgical pre-planning. I also worked closely with Professor Francesco Migliavacca and Dr. Giulia Luraghi from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

I secured an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grant in collaboration with Terumo Aortic to further develop my PhD findings into a fully automated tool for endovascular surgery planning. However, to gain broader experience in biomechanics, I joined the EPSRC Centre for Future PCI Planning as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, while continuing to contribute to the IAA project as a collaborator.

My master’s thesis at IIT Madras, supervised by Prof. R. Krishnakumar, involved an in-depth study of fluid-structure interactions during craniotomy and the development of a virtual reality tool for pre-surgical planning and post-surgery validation in cardiothoracic surgeries. This project was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Komarakshi Balakrishnan, a cardiothoracic surgeon, who sought a virtual reality-aided tool to pre-plan and validate left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation surgeries.

A group of surgeons successfully used our tool to pre-plan surgeries for pediatric patients suffering from cardiomyopathy. The tool was also utilized to validate surgical outcomes by assessing LVAD inflow cannula angles using segmented geometries from follow-up scan data. The project gained national recognition when surgeons successfully treated a pediatric patient previously deemed untreatable in Egypt, Europe, and the USA. (link to India’s Former Education Minister’s appreciation).

Research interests

My current research focuses on modeling in-stent restenosis, which occurs after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). To achieve this, I plan to employ growth & remodelling (G&R) theories such as volumetric/kinematic growth models and homogenised cosntrained mixture theory (CMT), fluid-structure interaction (FSI), and damage mechanics to model neo-intimal growth. Additionally, we aim to incorporate drug-eluting stents into our study to analyze the relationship between drug elution and the degree of neo-intimal growth.

My PhD research centered on optimizing stent grafts for treating aortic aneurysms and dissections, specifically investigating tear propagation and long-term vascular adaptations in patients’ aortas. I designed computationally efficient stent grafts to help minimize post-surgery complications. To achieve these goals, I utilized advanced computational techniques, including nonlinear continuum mechanics, finite element methods, and extended finite element methods (XFEM). Additionally, I have expertise in developing user-defined material subroutines for anisotropic hyperelastic models, which are widely used in soft tissue mechanics. Currently, using pre- and post-surgery CT scan data of aneurysm patients, I am implementing multiscale growth and remodelling (G&R) theories to model vascular adaptations induced by implanted stent grafts.

Additionally, I have a keen interest in leveraging Mixed Reality (Virtual/Augmented Reality – AR/VR) for surgical training and pre-surgical planning.

Grants

EPSRC (2025-2029), Centre for Future PCI Planning, EP/Z531182/1 (Postdoctoral Research Associate)

EPSRC (2025-2026), Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAA) & TerumoAortic (co-sponsored) Grant - £71,939 (Collaborator)

EPSRC (2020-2024), SofTMech & TerumoAortic.Inc PhD Scholarship. EP/S030875/1

Half-Time Research Assistant Fellowship (HTRA), IIT Madras (2017-2020)

Teaching

University of Glasgow, UK                                                                                                                                                             May 2022 - Aug 2024

Teaching Assistant, James Watt School of Engineering

Taught solid mechanics problems to UG, MEng and MS students.

Helped the students with simulating elastic and plastic behaviour in ABAQUS.

Assisted the students in simulating a plate with a hole problem and 3D analysis of a bearing bracket design in ABAQUS.

Demonstrator, James Watt School of Engineering

Helped students perform tensile tests, impact tests, and heat treatment processes to understand the effect of the annealing process of ferrous alloys.

Helped students perform tensile and impact tests to understand carbon’s effect on steel’s mechanical properties. Also assisted them in conducting tests on copper and polymers.

Assisted students in building miniature trebuchet machines using laser-cut materials.

Marker, School of Mathematics and Statistics & James Watt School of Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India                                                                                                                July 2017 - March 2020

Teaching assistant, Department of Engineering Design