Alessandro Bellofiore, PhD.
Associate Professor
Preferred: alessandro.bellofiore@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-4096
Office Hours
Mon/Thu 12:30 - 1:30PM
Education
- M.S. (Chemical Engineering, Universitá Federico II di Napoli, Italy)
- Ph.D. (Chemical Engineering, Universitá Federico II di Napoli, Italy)
Bio
Academic Appointments
- Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, San Jose State University (2020-current)
- Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, San Jose State University (2014-2020)
- Research Associate, Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011-2014)
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway (2008-2011)
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Chemical Engineering, Universitá Federico II di Napoli, Italy (2007-2008)
Honors and Awards
- Instructor Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison Students (2013)
- Combustion Institute Travel award, International Section of the Combustion Institute, 2006
- Paul Eisenklam Travel Award, European Section of the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, 2006
Funding
- "SC1: Hemodynamic performance and hemocompatibility testing platform
to develop anticoagulant-free mechanical heart valves"
Funding source: NIH (SCORE), 2020 - “Acquisition of a High-Speed Particle Image Velocimetry Instrument”
Funding source: NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI), 2017
Role: Principal Investigator - “Proposal to Test Device Performance for Wavelet Health”
Funding source: Wavelet Health, 2017
Role: Co-Investigator
Teaching Interests
- Fluid mechanics and Hemodynamics
- Biomechanics and Cardiovascular mechanics
- Conservation Principles
- Statistics
- Biomedical applications of Statics
- Medical imaging
- Biomaterials
Research and Scholarly Interests
- Fluid mechanics of biomedical devices
- Hemodynamics and cardiovascular mechanics
- Particle Image Velocimetry
- Chronic Kidney disease
- Clinical imaging and data analysis
- Wearable devices for cardiovascular applications
Current Research
- Flow-induced blood damage by mechanical heart valves
Abnormal blood flow patterns associated with mechanical heart valves (MHVs) play an important role in triggering blood cell damage. Patients with MHVs have an increased risk of blood clotting and need lifetime anticoagulant therapy. I hypothesize that the non-physiological performance of MHVs is responsible for prolonged exposure of blood cells to elevated shear stresses, which may induce cell damage. At National University of Ireland, Galway, I combined a scaled-up experimental model of MHV flow with a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to obtain flow measurements at unprecedented resolution. As a result, I was able to use Lagrangian tracking methods to calculate trajectories, mechanical loading and damage indices of platelets traveling through the MHV. With my research, I demonstrated that abnormal shear stresses in the flow downstream of MHVs can reduce the lifespan of blood cells and trigger platelet activation and clotting. At SJSU, I have worked with graduate students to develop a physiological-scale mock circulation loop to test the hemodynamic performance of trileaflet MHVs, a novel design approach that may mimic more closely the dynamics of natural valves. I am currently seeking funding from NSF to acquire a time-resolved PIV system to further investigate the performance of trileaflet valves.
- Right ventricular-pulmonary vascular interactions in pulmonary hypertension
My research aims at understanding the mechanisms of progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) using data obtained from large animal studies and clinical trials. PAH originates in the distal pulmonary vasculature and ultimately leads to right ventricular failure. Despite modern therapies, PAH remains a progressive and fatal disease. My overall hypothesis is that stiffening of the pulmonary arteries, caused by PAH, impairs right ventricular function by decreasing the efficiency of ventricular-vascular interactions. Through extensive collaboration with UW-Madison, Northwestern University, and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital (Glasgow, UK) I have demonstrated the effect of exercise on ventricular-vascular function and contributed to shed light on the prognostic value of medical image analysis in PAH.
- An affordable machine learning-based approach to monitoring chronic kidney disease
at home
This research focuses on the design and validation of a point-of-care (POC) platform to monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD). The platform combines an inexpensive paper-based microfluidic device with a smartphone camera and machine learning, to assess CKD severity based on the serum creatinine concentration obtained from a single blood droplet. Creatinine is a byproduct of muscle metabolism, and accumulates in the blood if not properly cleared by the kidneys. On the surface of the microfluidic device, creatinine reacts with picric acid (Jaffe reaction) to produce a colorimetric response. An image of the device is captured by a smartphone camera and analyzed using machine learning algorithms to accurately estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a standard clinical index of kidney function. Students working on this project investigate the effect of device design, image capture delay, image features extracted, machine learning models and training/validation schemes on the accuracy and repeatability of this novel platform.
Selected Publications
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Chakraborty S., Simon M.G., Bellofiore A. (2025) Rethinking mechanical heart valves in the aortic position: new paradigms in design and testing, Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 11:1458809, doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1458809
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Whelan, A., Elsayed, R., Bellofiore, A., Anastasiu D. (2024) Selective Partitioned Regression for Accurate Kidney Health Monitoring. Ann Biomed Eng. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10439-024-03470-8.
- Cheng T-C., Philip J.L., Tabima D.M., Kumari S., Yakubov B., Frump A.L., Hacker T.A., Bellofiore A., et al. (2020), Estrogen Receptor Alpha Prevents Right Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction and Fibrosis in Female Rats, Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 319(6): H1459-H1473. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00247.2020.
- Mulchrone A., Bellofiore A., et al. (2020), Impaired Right Ventricular-Vascular Coupling in Young Adults Born Preterm, Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 201(5): pp. 615-618. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201904-0767LE.
- Bellofiore A., Vanderpool R., Brewis M.J., Peacock A.J., Chesler N.C. (2018), A novel
singlebeat approach to assess right ventricular systolic function, J Appl Physiol 124: pp.
283–290. - Blyth K.G., Bellofiore A., Jayasekera et al. (2017) Dobutamine Stress MRI in Pulmonary
Hypertension: Relationships between Stress Pulmonary Artery Relative Area Change,
RV performance and 10-year Survival, Pulm Circ, 7(2): pp. 465-475. - Bellofiore A., Dinges E., Naeije R. et al. (2017) Reduced hemodynamic coupling and
exercise are associated with vascular stiffening in pulmonary arterial hypertension,
Heart, 103(6): pp. 421-427. - Brewis M.J., Bellofiore A., Vanderpool R.R. et al. (2016) Imaging right ventricular function to predict outcome in pulmonary arterial hypertension, Int J Cardiol, 218, pp. 206–211.
- Klusak E., Bellofiore A., Loughnane S., Quinlan N.J. (2015) High-Resolution Measurements of Velocity and Shear Stress in Leakage Jets From Bileaflet Mechanical Heart Valve Hinge Models, J Biomech Eng, 137(11), 111008.
- Bellofiore A., et al. (2015) A Novel In Vivo Approach to Assess Radial and Axial Distensibility of Large and Intermediate Pulmonary Artery Branches. J Biomech Eng, 137(4), 044501.
- Bellofiore A., Chesler N.C. (2013) Methods for measuring right ventricular function and hemodynamic coupling with the pulmonary vasculature, Ann Biomed Eng, 41(7), pp. 1384-98.
- Bellofiore A., et al. (2013) Impact of Acute Pulmonary Embolization on Arterial Stiffening and Right Ventricular Function in Dogs, Ann Biomed Eng, 41(1), pp. 195-204.
- Bellofiore A., Quinlan N.J. (2011) High-Resolution Measurement of the Unsteady Velocity Field to Evaluate Blood Damage Induced by a Mechanical Heart Valve, Ann Biomed Eng, 39(9), pp. 2417-2429.
- Bellofiore A., et al. (2011) Scale-up of an Unsteady Flow-field for Enhanced Spatial and Temporal Resolution of PIV Measurements: Application to Leaflet Wake Flow in a Mechanical Heart Valve, Exp. Fluids, 51(1), pp.161-176.
Professional Service
- Reviewer: Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology, Experiments in Fluids, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Atomization and Sprays
- Organizing Committee Member:
- Bioengineering in Ireland (BINI) Conference 2011
- Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge 2017
- Faculty advisor
- SJSU’s student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
- 8th Annual Bay Are Biomedical Device Conference, 2017
- 2017 Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge and Festival
People @ CardioLab
Postdoctoral Researcher (Current)
- Sreyashi Chakraborty, PhD
Undergraduate students (Current)
- Naomi Bolotin
- Nhu Tu
- Hannah Tulabut
- Aaheli Das
- Sarai Gallardo
- Samantha Yeo
- Seth Gonzalez
- Christopher Gudiel-Gutierrez
- Daniela Vivanco
- Yhanira Medina
- Santosh Dasari
- Joey Arey
- Janane Sivakumar
- Aasiya Jabbar
- Praagna Doddaballapur
- Shannon Cao
- Morgan Mah
- Shivani Konduru
Graduate Students (Current)
- Aadarsh Shivaraju
- Brian Lindskog
- Almary Bernal
- Adwait Pathak
- Andy Huynh
- Sameet Singh
- Emily Nguyen
- Aya Zaky
- Natalia Briseno
- Bryan Medina
- Harvey Yamada