Biosketch: My research activity is focused on the application of biomechanical principles to improve the way we diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases. I have gained a considerable experience (10+years) in the utilize of different finite-element techniques (CFD, FEM and FSI) and experimental mechanics for the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms leading to disease progression with the final goal to develop new risk stratification strategies and computer-based clinical decision support system. My publication track records account for >60 peer-review publications in clinical and bioengineering journals as first or senior author (source Scopus) as well as >100 abstracts in national and international conferences. I currently leading a research team composed of n.2 PhD students (all supported by personal funding) and supported by a clinical research associate and molecualr biologist. I was the recipient of a number awards as PI from public (Italian Ministry of Health) and private funding schemes. I thought biomechanics in advanced course and supervised many graduate and PhD student from national and international academia. I was ahead of cardiovascular engineering program at IRCCS ISMETT and still work closely with clinicians to support their decision-making.

A. Education

2008                  Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Palermo, Palermo (Italy)

2004                  Master of Engineering (MEng), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Palermo, Palermo (Italy)

 

B. Past Positions

2006-2007         PhD visiting student, Department of Mechanics, University of South Carolina, Columbia (USA)

2008-2009         Post-doc fellowship (granted by MIUR), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2009–2012        Research Associate, Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (USA)

2009-2019         Principal Investigator (permanent position), Fondazione RiMED, Italy

2011-2019         Research associate, Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies (ISMETT) - IRCCS, Italy (ahead of cardiovascular engineering program)

2014-current      National Scientific Qualification as Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), Italy

2017-current      National Scientific Qualification as Professor of Industrial Bioengineering, Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), Italy

C. Awards

2008               Young Research Award, International Conference on Residual Stress (ICRS-08), August 4-6,

2010               Young Research Award, 39th Conference of Italian Association for Mechanical Engineering, September 7-10, 2010, Maratea, Italy,

2013               Travel Grant Award, 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, October 5-9, 2013, Vienna, Austria,

2017               Young Research Award “ Vincenzo Masini”, National Congress of Cardiology 2017, Rimini, May 11-13, 2017

2018               Best Paper Awards (co-investigator), Department of Industrial and Digital Innovation (DIID), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.

2018               Start-UP & Innovation Competition Award, 39th National Congress Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology, 16-19 October, Milan, Italy

2019               Certificate for Highly Cited Research in Journal of Biomechanics, top 10 most cited article in the last 5 years (2013-2018)

 

C. Supervision of Students and Postdoctoral Fellow

2011                Exchange student program: Dr. Jake Lee; "Predicting the clinical evolution of Type B aortic dissection" ISMETT-UPMC Summer Program, School of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and IRCCS ISMETT (Italy).

2013                Exchange student program: Dr. Bryan Wu; "Surgery of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm: bicuspid versus tricuspid aortic valve population" ISMETT-UPMC Summer Program, School of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and IRCCS ISMETT (Italy)

2017                Exchange student program: Mr. Drake Pedersen "Particle image velocimetry of electrospun tri-leaflets valves", Whitaker Foundation, Bioengineering School at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and Dipartimento dell'Innovazione Industriale e Digitale (DIID), at Università di Palermo (Italy)

2018                Exchange student program: Dr. Casey Thompkins; "Computational modelling of heart valves" ISMETT-UPMC Summer Program, School of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and IRCCS ISMETT (Italy)

2018                Exchange student program: Mr. Vincent Mendez, School of Bioeingeneering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausannee (EPFL) in collaboration with RiMED (Italy).

2018                Doctoral student supervising: Federica Cosentino "Mechanical Modeling of Aortic Aneuyrysms", Università di Palermo, Italy - Course: Tecnologie e Scienze per la Salute Dell'Uomo (dottorato ciclo XXXIII) AA2018/2021.

▪    Recipients of “Ernst Mach Grant” 2019, Austria

▪    Recipients of ERASMUS +, UniPA 2019

2018                Doctoral student supervising: Marzio Di Giuseppe "Failure Mechanisms of Aortic Aneurysm", Università di Palermo, Italy - Course: Tecnologie e Scienze per la Salute Dell'Uomo (dottorato ciclo XXXIII) AA2018/2021.

▪    Recipients of ERASMUS +, UniPA 2019

2008-current   Advisor of many master students (near 20 students) and graduate student (near 10 students), Università di Palermo, Italy

 

D. Advanced Teaching Activities

2016                Biomechanics, 40 hrs course – Advanced teaching programme organized by Lima Corporate for engineers and biologists (PON-01-01287), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

2017                Modelli Matematici nel Virtual Physiology Human, 4 hrs course – Advanced teaching programme organized by Distretto Tecnologico Sicilia Micro e Nano Sistemi (PON02_00355_2964193)

2018                Principles of biomechanics, high school course n.12 hours - STEM (Science, Tecnology, Engineering, Mathematics) at Istituto Gonzaga, Palermo, Italy.

2018                Member of Doctorate Committee in “Tecnologie e Scienze per la Salute Dell'Uomo”, Università degli Studi di Palermo, (DOT1720429).

 

E. Grants

2011                Ministry of Health – Young Researcher 2011-2012 Title: Hemodynamic and Biomarkers for Clinical Risk Stratification of Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm with Bicuspid Aortic Valve (GR-2011-02348129),PI: S Pasta (budget € 445.445,00)

2012                Fondo Finalizzato Ricerca 2011-2012, Universita’ di Palermo Title: “Caratterizzazione meccanica di tessuti dell’aneurisma aortico ascendente” co-PI: S Pasta (budget € 6.000,00)

2009                Fondazione RiMED, Title: Biomechanics of Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms; PI: S Pasta (budget € 250.000)

2018                PON FSE-FESR Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020 - Azione I.1 Dottorati innovativi con caratterizzazione industriale, MIUR Title: Modeling micromeccanico della patologie aortiche - Micromechanical Modeling of Aortic Pathologies (DOT1720429-2), (budget € 60.000,00 covering a PhD student for n.3 years)

2019                Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) – PNR 2015–2020 Title: 4 FRAILTY – Sensoristica intelligente, infrastrutture e modelli gestionali per la sicurezza di soggetti fragili (ARS01_00345), co-PI: S. Pasta (budget € 300.736,15; under funding)

2020               Italian SuperComputing Resource Allocation (ISCRA Cineca)

                                Title: Computational Modeling of Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms: Towards Personalized Risk Strategies (HP10CWH78U), PI: S Pasta (budget 15 hours on GALILEO2 and 30hours on MARCONI100)

 

F. Commission of Trust

2008-current   Reviewer for Circulation, American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Medical Engineering & Physics, Journal of Biomechanics, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Computers in Biology and Medicine, Journal of Endovascular Therapy, Journal of Engineering in Medicine

• More information on Publons (https://publons.com/a/1622567)

2015                Editor of Special Issue "Frontier Biomechanical Challenges in Cardiovascular Physiopathology" in Medical Engineering & Physics

2017                Grant Reviewer for Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss

2017                Grant Reviewer PRIN 2017 for Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)

2018                Grant Reviewer for National Center of Scientific and Technical Evaluation (NCSTE)”, Kazakhstan

2018-current   Editorial Board of Medical Engineering & Physics, Elsevier

2019                Assessorato regionale attività produttive, Roster ET 4, PO-FESR 2014-2020, Region of Sicily, Italy

2019-current   Member of the Living Heart Project, MItral Valve Special Interest Group, Dassault Systèmes

2020                 Grant Reviewer for the Austrian Science Foundation, Austria

2020                 Editorial Board of Prosthesis, MDPI

2020                 Editorial Board of Biomechanics, MDPI

2020                 Advisory Board/Commitee of MDPI publisher

 

G. Organization of Scientific Meeting

2016                Chairman and Organization of the Symposium "Frontier Biomechanical Challenges in Cardiovascular Physiopathology", Palermo, Italy, September 8-9, 2016

2016                Organization committee of XXXII LIAC Meeting on Vascular Research. Ustica (Italy), 14-17 September 2016

2017                Session chairman at International Conference on Experimental Mechanics (ICEM-13), Alexandroupolis, Greece, July 1-6, 2007

2017                Scientific committee of the conference “International Conference on Biomedical Technology (ICBT 2017)”, Hannover, Germany, November, 6-8, 2017

2017                Scientific committee of the conference “ESB-ITA - VII Annual Meeting”, Rome, Italy, September, 28-29, 2017

2018                Organization committee of Management of Heart Failure: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives. Palermo (Italy), 07-09 July 2018

2019                Session chairman of Session “PO.16: Cardiovascular / fluid and respiratory” at 25th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB2019), Wien, Austria, July 7-11, 2019

2019                Scientific committee of the conference “ESB-ITA - IX Annual Meeting”, Bologna, Italy, September, 30, October 1, 2019;

2019                Session chairman of Session “Thematic Symposium Biomechanics for in silico clinical trials” at ESB-ITA - IX Annual Meeting”, Bologna, Italy, September 30, 2019;

2020                Scientific committee of Scuola Internazionale Avanzata Biomeccanica, Campus Biomedico, Roma, Italy, February 24-28, 2020

 

H. Invited Talk

2011                Lecture magistralis at RiMED’s Symposium for the meeting of 2011, 2015, and 2018.

2008                Invited talk on "Residual Stress in FSW joints", ICRS-08 International conference, August 4-6, Denver (CO), 2008. USA.

2013                Invited talk at Computational Mechanics & Advanced Materials Group, University of Pavia, Pavia, October 11, 2013, Italy

2013                Invited talk at Laboratory for Modeling and Scientific Computing (MOX), Politecnico di Milano, Milan, March 11, 2013, Italy

2015                Lecture magistralis at Infoday, Ministero della Salute, Palermo, Jannuary 22, 2015, Italy

2017                Invited talk at Center for Biomedical and Healthcare Engineering, University Mines Saint-Etienne, Jannuary 31 – February 3, 2017, France

2018                Invited talk at “Management of Heart Failure: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives. Palermo (Italy), 07-09 July 2018

2018                Invited speaker at “Focus on TAVI” organized by ISMETT-IRCCS Palermo (Italy), 04 May 2018

2018                Invited talk at “Mathematical and Numerical Modeling of the Cardiovascular System - INdAM Workshop”, April 16-19, 2018, Rome, Italy  

2018                Invited seminar at Società Italiana di Chirurgia Cardiaca (SICCH), Novembre 23-25, 2018, Roma, Italy

2019                Invited talk at “new frontiers from Preclinical studies to Clinical applications. Catania (Italy), 10 May 2019

I. Patent

2018                Inventor: Pasta S., C. Scardulla; Applicant: ISMETT IRCCS, Fondazione RiMED. Title: Method and system for the risk stratification of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm; WO2018220573 A1;

F. Collaborations

2009-current   Dr. V. Badhwar, Dr. Antonio D'Amore and Dr. Wiliam R. Wagner and "Flow dynamic evaluation of electrospun artificial valve by particle image velocimetry and computational modeling", University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
 Output:
 n.1 paper;
 n.1 grant application for ERC-2020-COG;
 n.1 invited seminar for ESB-ITA Thematic Symposium, 2016

2007-current   Prof David A. Vorp, PhD, and Thomas G. Gleason, MD, "Biomechanics of Aortic Aneurysm", University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (PA), USA
Output:
n.7 paper;
n.2 exchange of student from Palermo to Pittsburgh;
n.1 Scientific meeting;

2015-current    Prof. Alfio Quarteroni, "Computational Fluid Dynamic Modelling of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Continuous-Flow Ventricular Assistant Device", Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland,
 Output:
n.2 paper;
n.1 grant application for H2020-PHC-2015-single-stage;
n.2 invited lecture at IRCCS ISMETT

2018-current    Prof. Stephane Avril, "Micromechanics of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm”, Saint-Etienne, France.
Output:
n.2 paper;
n.1 exchange of a PhD student for 1 year

2018-current   Dr. Hector Michelena. “Prognostic significance of aortic wall strain in bicuspid patients”, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA
Output:
n.2 paper;

2019-current   Prof. Julius Guccione. “Computational Cardiac Mechanics”, University of California, San Francisco, San Diego, USA
Output:
n.1 invited lecture at University of Palermo, September 2020;

                               n.1 paper

G. Membership

2012-current        European Society of Biomechanics (ESB)

2012-current        Capitolo Italiano of ESB (ESB-ITA)

2009-2011            Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)

2009-2011            American Association of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

 

H. Media Press

2010                       The Evolution of Excellence – University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine – “The Pittsburgh-Palermo Promise: Reaching out with RiMED”, April 2010

2014                       Newsletter del el Capitolo Italiano della European Society of Biomechanics, 2014

2017                      Tecnica Ospedaliera – “Aneurisma Aortico: un Modello per Prevedere Quando è Necessario Operare”, May, 2017

2017                       Il Gattopardo – “Qui si Studia la Nuova Medicina”, April 2017

2017                       Il Sole 24 ore “ Il Database che Identifica il Rischio al Cuore”, 2017

2018                       Fondazione Menarini “In-Silico Modeling for the Clinical Risk Stratification of Ascending Aortic Aneurysm”, 2018