Dr Claire Conway (PI):

Dr  Claire Conway Ph.D. B.Eng.
StAR Lecturer
Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Dr. Conway confirmed:-

“We are very grateful to CRY Ireland for funding and awarding the 2024 Michael Green Summer Studentship to Ms. Karissa Sonoo at RCSI. Karissa is entering her third year of Medicine at RCSI and has a keen interest in Cardiology. Cardiomyopathies, or diseases of the heart muscle, where the walls of the heart chambers have become stretched, thickened or stiff. This affects the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body. Some studies indicate that thickening or stretching of the heart muscle wall may be a cause of sudden cardiac death in the young, with higher rate of detection at autopsy.

Karissa’s project examined the interior surface of the left ventricle of hearts via study of the intricacies of the trabeculae carnae (ridge-like structures on interior surface). These advanced high-resolution models will serve as inputs to the digital predictive pipeline in my lab to digitally reanimate cardia using advanced mathematical simulation techniques. The digital reanimation could give insight into how cardiomyopathy-related changes in ventricular structure affect heart mechanics – or simply how shape changes impact how the heart beats”.

Karisso Sonoo (Researcher)  told us     “I am honoured to have received this summer studentship from CRY. I greatly admire the efforts of CRY to support students by providing the resources to get involved in medical research at an early stage in their career. I also appreciate their dedication to promoting awareness to cardiovascular disease in the younger population as it is critical. Cardiomyopathy is one of the common causes of sudden cardiac death in children under the age of 18. The importance of trabeculae carnae with relevance to cardiomyopathy is also poorly understood. Therefore, understanding the influence of trabeculae carnae in different states of cardiomyopathy would be beneficial to potentially prevent or treat this pathology in young patients in the future. Due to their support, I was able to undertake research in this area to help understand this concept”.