The Impact on Today's Society


Anna Georgieva's work includes the modeling of the airflow and gas uptake in the nasal passages of rats and humans. She uses CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) to model the noses and airflow and has built a replica of a human nose to study the airflow through them as well. Georgieva's work in this area has found that the inhalation of formaldehyde leads to nasal cancer in rats at 6 parts per million and higher. This type of modeling can help researchers to figure out what kind of damage is done by different levels of certain gases. Currently, researchers at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology are using this type of modeling to study the nasal passages of rats as well and are studying the differences between the anatomies of rats and humans in order to apply the results found in the rats to humans as well. This type of research could lead to a greater understanding of the effect that certain gases have on our bodies.
Teresa.Tetlow@duke.edu
Julia.Whitley@duke.edu