CSC-Funded PhD Opportunity in Cardiovascular Deconditioning and Space Medicine – Politecnico di Torino

id="offer-description" class="ecl-u-type-heading-2 ecl-u-mt-none ecl-u-mb-l">Offer Description Cardiovascular Deconditioning in Space Medicine: A Computational Approach to Investigate Mechanisms and Potential Countermeasures . PhD Project in Aerospace Engineering funded by China Scholarship Council DIMEAS, Politecnico di Torino, Italy . Supervisors: Prof. Stefania Scarsoglio ( [email protected] ) and Prof. Luca Ridolfi ( [email protected] ) . Research context and abstract . Long-duration spaceflight induces cardiovascular adaptations, including cephalad fluid shift, changes in blood volume and venous return, and altered hemodynamic regulation. These responses contribute to cardiovascular deconditioning and may be associated with mission-relevant risks such as Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) and venous thromboembolism (VTE). The mechanisms linking altered gravity to systemic, cerebral, ocular, and venous hemodynamics remain incompletely understood. This project will build on the group’s existing closed-loop, multiscale 0D–1D cardiovascular model and its subsequent developments to investigate cardiovascular adaptation to altered gravity and the mechanisms underlying deconditioning. The framework will be extended to represent gravity- and posture-dependent processes, including venous collapse, pressure effects associated with lower-body negative pressure (LBNP), and gravity gradients and Coriolis forces during short-radius artificial gravity