CBTS student receives grant from The Leakey Foundation
Lyndee Ward, a PhD student in the College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, was awarded a grant from The Leakey Foundation to explore how variation in nasal anatomy helps people breathe in different climates.
Her project is titled “Climate and human nasal evolution: Experimentally investigating skeletal and soft tissue influences on nasal airflow dynamics in living humans.” The results will provide insights into how differences in nasal anatomy influence respiratory function, including inspiratory heating and humidification, across globally diverse climates. The project will also contribute to a better understanding of how humans adapted to different environments in the past and how climate change may impact respiratory health in the future.
“I am thrilled to receive support from the Leakey Foundation for my doctoral research, which aims to bring together anthropology, medical imaging and aerospace engineering to study respiration in new and exciting ways,” Ward said.
“By combining CT-based 3D modeling of nasal anatomy with clinical techniques such as acoustic rhinometry and computational fluid dynamics analyses of nasal airflow, my project seeks to better understand how the nose functions in different climates, providing important insights into human respiration – past, present and future.”
The award will support Ward’s training and research as she pursues her PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in Structural Anatomy and Rehabilitation Sciences at HSC. She works under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Maddux, associate professor of Physiology and Anatomy at HSC’s Center for Anatomical Sciences.
“The Leakey Foundation is a prestigious funder of research into human evolution. Receiving this highly competitive grant speaks to Lyndee’s bright future as a researcher and will allow her to complete a truly innovative PhD project in the Human Thermoregulation Lab here at UNTHSC,” Maddux said.
Using a recently installed climate chamber in Maddux’s lab, Ward’s project will measure real-time changes in nasal mucosal congestion among research subjects exposed to climatic conditions set to mimic the Amazon rainforest, Saharan desert, and Arctic tundra.
These measurements will then be used to generate anatomically accurate 3D models of each participant’s nasal passages from CT scans, from which respiratory airflow can be assessed using computational fluid dynamics analysis, a technique commonly used in aerospace engineering to evaluate airflow for vehicle aerodynamics, engine ventilation and HVAC systems.
The Leakey Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to increase scientific knowledge, education and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior and survival. The Foundation awards grants for multidisciplinary research and supports early-career scientists and graduate students who are finding innovative ways to learn about human evolution.
Social media