Luke Ohlmann

Luke Ohlmann was raised in the small town of Fort Nelson, BC, where his passion for mechanical design was fostered. After completing the last few years of high school Luke realized he could take this passion forward into Mechanical Engineering school at the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus. During his undergraduate studies, Luke was interested in the research being done in Dr. Mohammadi’s lab, especially the research conducted towards prosthetic devices. Upon earning his BASc, Luke applied for his MASc in the same year of 2016, joining the Heart Valve Performance Laboratory.
 
During his research period, Luke has developed a completely new type of prosthetic heart valve for the aortic root. This valve is composed of a hydrogel biomaterial and is the first valve of its type due to the active nature of the accompanying stent. By using a soft rubber-like material for the body of the device, Soft Robotics, a developing area of robotics that uses varying elasticities and pressures throughout the device, enables the actuation of the stent ring. Developing the prosthetic heart valve in this manner increases the effective orifice area, and therefore the volumetric flow rate, through the aortic annulus. Luke has submitted a US Provisional Patent and an article to the Journal of Medical Engineering and Physics (accepted with minor revisions) on his design. He will be defending his MASc thesis in 2019, and hopes to use the technical skills he’s developed to continue work in the biomedical engineering field.

Publications

  • Ohlmann, L, Mohammadi H. Soft robotic in the construction of prosthetic heart valve: A novel approach, J Medical Engineering and Physics, Accepted. MEP-D-18-00348
  • Jahandardoost M., Ohlmann L., Fradet G., Mohammadi H. (2018) Effect of the Heart Rate on the Hemodynamics of the Elliptic St. Jude Medical Valve; A Computational Study, Journal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology, 18(2): 1850014