Research in the Mechanobiology Laboratory

An overriding objective of the Mechanobiology Lab is to elucidate the fundamental nature of how cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli, and to employ the principles revealed by these studies to seek new treatments for vascular disease and to develop tissue constructs for drug and toxicity screening.

Both experimental and computational approaches are employed in a manner that encourages the constant interplay between the two for purposes of model validation, direct measurement of critical parameters, and identifying new hypotheses to be tested through experiment.

Computational methods are employed at multiple length scales including finite element methods, Langevin or Brownian dynamics methods, and molecular dynamics simulation.

Single molecule, single cell, and cell population studies are all used, often through collaborations with other faculty members. Microfluidic devices provide the platform technology for much of the in vitro investigations.

Areas of interest:
Applied Mechanics
Biomaterials
Biomechanics
Biomedical
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Computational Mechanics
Finite Elements
Fluid Mechanics