Dr. Zapanta's research interests are divided into three areas: cardiac assist devices, prosthetic heart valves, and cardiovascular fluid dynamics. Penn State has a long and successful history in the development of ventricular assist devices (VADs) and total artificial hearts (TAHs). Current work is focused on optimizing current VAD and TAH designs and developing new designs and biomaterials.

Prosthetic heart valve research includes work on both mechanical and bioprosthetic heart valves. The effect of cardiac arrhythmias on prosthetic heart valve function is examined on a novel mock circulatory loop that can mimic different types of arrhythmias. Because calcification can lead to valve dysfunction and failure, a second area of heart valve research focuses on developing new in vitro calcification tests for bioprosthetic valves. These new methods will take into account both valve mechanics and physiological mechanisms of calcification. The final research area involves developing techniques to quantify mechanical heart valve cavitation both in vitro and in vivo. Cavitation bubble formation and collapse can damage heart valve and blood components. This work is conducted in conjunction with researchers at the University Park campus. Dr. Zapanta is also interested in developing novel techniques to examine cardiovascular fluid dynamics. These techniques will be used to study the blood flow through different medical devices, such as the cannulas of VADs, stents, and grafts.