About her Postdoctoral project

The reduced red blood cell (RBC) deformability in patients with sickle cell disease induces an increase in blood viscosity and leads to painful vaso-occlusive crises. RBC deformability influences their spatial organization under flow and the resulting rheology of blood. So far the micro/macro link is not well understood due to the lack of experimental techniques giving access to the microstructure of RBC suspensions. Indeed, blood is an opaque RBC suspension so the use of optical methods is limited to measurements in 2D confined flows and/or in diluted suspensions, that are not physio-pathologically representative. The project will focus on the development of ultrasound scattering technique to probe the microstructure of concentrated RBC suspensions under shear flow. With this new technique we will enlighten the role of RBC properties on suspension microstructure and rheology, in both confined and unconfined flows. This will pave the way to a better understanding of the hemorheological alterations in sickle cell disease.