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Professor Butcher’s research initiative focuses on understanding the roles of mechanical forces in shaping cardiovascular morphogenesis and adult disease, with an emphasis on heart valves. The long-term objectives are to use developmental paradigms to discover novel disease paradigms and regenerative strategies. His research thrusts include cardiovascular developmental mechanobiology, where he works to understand the engineering complexities that drive the formation and function of embryonic heart valves. He develops novel animal models for studying defective cardiogenesis and valvulogenesis using microsurgical and genetic approaches, complementing this with complex in vitro morphogenic organoids. He has innovated unique experimental tools to quantify the local biomechanical hemodynamic environments that alter downstream morphogenesis. Moreover, he implements novel microfabricated mechanobiological test beds and imaging methods using micro-computed tomography and ultrasound. Professor Butcher also conducts computational simulations of hemodynamic mechanics using anatomically precise geometries of normal and malformed hearts, implementing spatial transcriptomics to elucidate local mechanobiological control mechanisms. Long-term goals include applying governing engineering principles to identify mechanobiological signaling shifts that rescue malforming cardiac anatomy and enable long-term function. In the realm of heart valve tissue engineering, he focuses on innovating 3D tissue printing technology to create living valved conduits that incorporate native cellular interactions within defined matrix environments.
Department of Architecture