About

Melissa Brindise is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. Her research focuses on biomedical and bioengineering topics, with particular interest in cardiovascular flows such as flow in cerebral aneurysms, traumatic brain injury, cognition, and heart disease. She specializes in experimental fluid dynamics and thermal/fluid sciences, employing high-fidelity simulations and experimental methods to investigate flow transition to turbulence, vessel hemodynamics, and automated analysis techniques. Dr. Brindise holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University (2013) and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University (2019). She is actively involved in research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association, contributing to the understanding of pulsatile pipe flow transition and cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics. Additionally, she participates in professional service, including committee memberships and conference organization, and serves as a faculty advisor for student organizations at Penn State.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Physics
• Biomedical engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanics
• Materials science
• Engineering
• Nuclear magnetic resonance
• Immunology
• Composite material
• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Statistics
• Pathology

Selected publications

• Effect of heart rate on Hemodynamcis of CA

  Open MIND · 2026-03-02

  datasetSenior author

  This data is the time resolved volumetric PTV shake the box tracks used in the study titled " Effect of heart rate on hemodynamics in patient-specific intracranial aneurysms: an in vitro study" published in the journal PLOS one.

  DOI

• Subcutaneous tissue structural feature identification using unsupervised machine learning

  Computers in Biology and Medicine · 2026-02-24

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of heart rate on Hemodynamcis of CA

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-02

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  This data is the time resolved volumetric PTV shake the box tracks used in the study titled " Effect of heart rate on hemodynamics in patient-specific intracranial aneurysms: an in vitro study" published in the journal PLOS one.

  PublisherDOI

• Evaluating the role of graft angle on cerebral hemodynamics following direct cerebral bypass for moyamoya disease

  PLoS ONE · 2026-01-05

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Direct cerebral bypass is a key treatment for moyamoya disease (MMD). This surgery grafts a donor vessel onto a recipient cerebral artery to boost blood flow to hypoperfused brain regions. Unlike coronary bypass, which restores downstream flow around a blockage, cerebral bypass for MMD reverses flow in the recipient vessel to perfuse the upstream network. Surgical decisions-such as donor vessel choice and anastomosis angle-significantly affect graft hemodynamics and outcomes. Yet these choices still rely on neurosurgeons' experience, lacking quantitative guidance. This study addresses that gap by examining how anastomosis angle shapes post-surgical perfusion and wall shear stress. We created idealized cerebral bypass models with graft angles of 30°, 60°, and 90°. Each model's flow field was assessed under varying inflow and graft-flow combinations using computational fluid dynamics. The 30° angle produced the strongest reverse flow but also the largest WSS imbalance, potentially driving long-term complications. The 60° angle achieved adequate reverse flow with a more uniform WSS profile, making it the most favorable. Overall, our results show graft angle must be carefully considered in cerebral bypass planning.

  PublisherDOI

• Resolving high frequency fluctuations in cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics: the critical role of high-fidelity simulations and heart rate effects

  Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine · 2025-12-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  • DNS revealed high-frequency flow fluctuations in an intracranial aneurysm model • Fluctuations became more prominent with increasing heart rate conditions • DNS matched experimental vorticity, unlike conventional low-resolution CFD • LRNS failed to capture intra-aneurysmal instabilities and fine vortex structures • High-fidelity CFD is critical for rupture risk assessment in complex IA flow Despite their assumed laminar flow conditions, intracranial aneurysm (IA) hemodynamics can exhibit high frequency fluctuations, which recent studies have related to rupture risk. However, accurate detection of these fluctuations is challenging. Therefore, investigation of low and highly resolved numerical simulations to identify increased blood flow frequencies is fundamental for enhancing rupture risk assessments. Highly resolved direct numerical simulations (DNS) and lower-resolution numerical simulations (LRNS) were conducted to assess IA hemodynamics under three representative heart rate frequencies in a patient-specific IA model (HR1: 60bpm, HR2: 100bpm, HR3: 137bpm). The simulated flow fields were validated against particle tracking velocimetry. Flow instabilities were quantified by the power spectral density. The velocity fields obtained from both numerical approaches closely matched experimental data (mean v norm =1 m/s at similar plane through IA). However, LRNS failed to capture intra-aneurysmal vorticity structures, whereas DNS successfully reproduced experimentally observed vorticity patterns. Both methods showed comparable root mean square values and time-resolved probe-wise results (highest differences: ∆0.08 m/s (HR1), ∆0.09 m/s (HR2-3). DNS uniquely identified high frequency fluctuations in velocity detected with power spectral density. These fluctuations strengthened with increasing heart rates and were not captured by LRNS. Thus, it is suggested to consider high-fidelity setups when addressing IA rupture risk assessment.

  PublisherDOI

• Automated detection of arrhythmias using a novel interpretable feature set extracted from 12-lead electrocardiogram

  Computers in Biology and Medicine · 2025-03-15 · 3 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Investigating intermittent behaviors in transitional flows using a novel time–frequency-based method

  Experiments in Fluids · 2024-08-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of wall compliance on vessel hemodynamics: A baseline particle tracking velocimetry study

  Physics of Fluids · 2024-12-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Fluid–structure interaction (FSI) is integral to cardiovascular biomechanics, highlighting the dynamic relationship between blood flow and vessel walls. Understanding FSI is essential for accurate vascular behavior models, influencing parameters such as wall shear stress (WSS), flow patterns, and vessel deformation. Vessel compliance, a key parameter in FSI, is critical as changes in arterial stiffness are linked to diseases like atherosclerosis and hypertension. Clinically, arterial compliance is assessed via pulse wave velocity (PWV). However, a specific quantitative relationship between PWV and compliance, from a fundamental fluid dynamics perspective, has not been established. In this work, we address this gap as well as explore the specific effects of compliance on hemodynamic parameters including velocity and pressure fields as well as WSS. We manufactured three idealized compliant tubes with varying wall thicknesses to vary their compliance and used volumetric particle track velocimetry to measure each tube's velocity fields at three inflow flow rate magnitudes. We observed that increased vessel compliance lowered the average pressure in the tube, but did not affect the peak acceleration pressure. Additionally, increased compliance caused more chaotic and non-uniform velocity and WSS trends. Finally, our study introduces a novel perspective for quantitatively relating PWV and compliance. Overall, our results provide a general experimental reference for FSI in vessels.

  PublisherDOI

• Rose Bengal Labeled Bovine Serum Albumin for Protein Transport Imaging in Subcutaneous Tissues Using Computed Tomography and Fluorescence Microscopy

  Bioconjugate Chemistry · 2024-06-14 · 3 citations

  article

  Subcutaneous (SC) injection of protein-based therapeutics is a convenient and clinically established drug delivery method. However, progress is needed to increase the bioavailability. Transport of low molecular weight (Mw) biotherapeutics such as insulin and small molecule contrast agents such as lipiodol has been studied using X-ray computed tomography (CT). This analysis, however, does not translate to the investigation of higher Mw therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), due to differences in molecular and formulation properties. In this study, an iodinated fluorescein analog rose bengal (RB) was used as a radiopaque and fluorescent label to track the distribution of bovine serum albumin (BSA) compared against unconjugated RB and sodium iodide (NaI) via CT and confocal microscopy following injection into ex vivo porcine SC tissue. Importantly, the high concentration BSA-RB exhibited viscosities more like that of viscous biologics than the small molecule contrast agents, suggesting that the labeled protein may serve as a more suitable formulation for the investigation of injection plumes. Three-dimensional (3D) renderings of the injection plumes showed that the BSA-RB distribution was markedly different from unconjugated RB and NaI, indicating the need for direct visualization of large protein therapeutics using conjugated tags rather than using small molecule tracers. Whereas this proof-of-concept study shows the novel use of RB as a label for tracking BSA distribution, our experimental approach may be applied to high Mw biologics, including mAbs. These studies could provide crucial information about diffusion in SC tissue and the influence of injection parameters on distribution, transport, and downstream bioavailability.

  PublisherDOI

• Fetal and neonatal echocardiographic analysis of biomechanical alterations for the systemic right ventricle heart

  PLoS ONE · 2024-09-19 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The perinatal transition's impact on systemic right ventricle (SRV) cardiac hemodynamics is not fully understood. Standard clinical image analysis tools fall short of capturing comprehensive diastolic and systolic measures of these hemodynamics. OBJECTIVES: Compare standard and novel hemodynamic echocardiogram (echo) parameters to quantify perinatal changes in SRV and healthy controls. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 10 SRV patients with echocardiograms at 33-weeks gestation and at day of birth and 12 age-matched controls. We used in-house developed analysis algorithms to quantify ventricular biomechanics from four-chamber B-mode and color Doppler scans. Cardiac morphology, hemodynamics, tissue motion, deformation, and flow parameters were measured. RESULTS: Tissue motion, deformation, and index measurements did not reliably capture biomechanical changes. Stroke volume and cardiac output were nearly twice as large for the SRV compared to the control RV and left ventricle (LV) due to RV enlargement. The enlarged RV exhibited disordered flow with higher energy loss (EL) compared to prenatal control LV and postnatal control RV and LV. Furthermore, the enlarged RV demonstrated elevated vortex strength (VS) and kinetic energy (KE) compared to both the control RV and LV, prenatally and postnatally. The SRV showed reduced relaxation with increased early filling velocity (E) compared prenatally to the LV and postnatally to the control RV and LV. Furthermore, increased recovery pressure (ΔP) was observed between the SRV and control RV and LV, prenatally and postnatally. CONCLUSIONS: The novel hydrodynamic parameters more reliably capture the SRV alterations than traditional parameters.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Characterizing Transition to Turbulence in Pulsatile Pipe Flow

  NSF · $322k · 2024–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Pavlos P. Vlachos

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  55 shared

• Brett Meyers

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  26 shared

• Michael Markl

  19 shared

• Jiacheng Zhang

  Guangdong Ocean University

  18 shared

• Vitaliy L. Rayz

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  17 shared

• Sean Rothenberger

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  15 shared

• David Saloner

  11 shared

• Susanne Schnell

  10 shared

Labs

• PSMES BoardPI

  The PSMES board of directors is made up of elected officers, six to nine at large members, the ME department head, and a mechanical engineering faculty member.

Education

• Ph.D.

  Purdue University

Awards & honors

• Participation in or Service to Professional and Learned Soci…
• Organizing Conferences and Service on Conference Committees,…
• Organizing Conferences and Service on Conference Committees,…
• Participation in or Service to Professional and Learned Soci…