Research Areas

Our research spans biomechanics of all scales and tissues. Although faculty research interests may overlap, each is listed once in the following tables.

Our research spans biomechanics of all scales and tissues. Although faculty expertise may include overlapping research areas, each is listed once in the following tables.

Joint/Systems Biomechanics

Faculty Topics
Jenni Buckley
  • Orthopaedic biomechanics
  • Biomechanical testing
  • Mechanical evaluation of medical devices
David Burris
  • Materials tribology
  • Low-wear tribological nanocomposites
  • Insitu micro-tribometry for osteoarthritis detection
Dawn Elliott
  • Orthopaedic tissue mechanics
  • Spine segment torsional mechanics and how they change with age and injury
  • Tears in knee meniscus and how they propagate
  • Micromechanics of tendon and how they change with repetitive loading
Abhyudai (Abhi) Singh
  • Computational systems biology
  • Modeling HIV gene expression and regulation
  • Phage induced lysis of bacterial cells
  • Quantifying viral fitness in single-cells

 

Human Movement and Rehabilitation

Faculty Topics
Elisa Arch
  • Optimization of the design of Prosthetic and Orthotic devices.
  • Adaptive capacity of the human musculoskeletal system during movement tasks.
  • interaction between the musculoskeletal system and prosthetic and orthotic devices.
  • 3D printing applications for biomechanical and rehabilitation engineering.
Panagiotis Artemiadis
  • Rehabilitation robotics
  • Intelligent prosthetics
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Biomechanics and modeling of gait
Thomas Buchanan
  • Knee mechanics after ACL injury
  • Knee stability and osteoarthritis
Joshua Cashaback
  • Neuromechanics
  • Human Reinforcement Learning
  • Human-Human Interactions
Jeremy Crenshaw
  • Fall-recovery training for individuals with chronic stroke
  • Evaluation of postural control in children with cerebral palsy
  • Effects of backward walking training on balance, mobility, strength and fall-recovery in the older adult population
Jocelyn Hafer
  • Understanding the effects of aging and knee osteoarthritis on gait
  • Wearable sensor methodology
  • Using wearable sensors to assess gait biomechanics in real-world settings
  • Role of muscle power and fatigability in joint health and mobility
Jill Higginson
  • Neuromuscular biomechanics
  • Design of interventions for post-stroke gait
  • Subject-specific musculoskeletal modeling
  • Interactions between cognitive and motor function
Ioannis Poulakakis
  • Bio-inspired robotic systems
  • Control tools for legged locomotion
Darcy Reisman
  • Stroke rehabilitation and motor learning
  • Biomechanics of stroke locomotion
  • Motor learning after stroke
  • Development and implementation of tools to accurately measure real-world walking after stroke
Fabrizio Sergi
  • Robot-assisted motor learning and rehabilitation
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Wearable robotics
Lynn Snyder-Mackler
  • ACL-deficient knee
  • Total knee arthroplasty

 

Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms

Faculty Topics
Sambeeta (Sam) Das
  • Microrobots
  • Cellular differentiation
  • Drug delivery
  • Biomaterials
Thomas Epps
  • Drug delivery and gene therapy
  • Stimuli-responsive polymeric nanocarriers for efficient and tunable anti-cancer drug delivery and gene therapy
Jason Gleghorn
  • Mechanics of morphogenesis
  • 3D traction force microscopy (TFM) of engineered contractile microfabricated tubular airways
  • Cellular kinematics of blood vessel assembly
  • Analysis of the mechanical forces that drive spatial patterns of cell proliferation during kidney development
X. Lucas Lu
  • Cartilage biomechanics and tissue engineering
  • Repair of cartilage lesion in temporomandibular joint with mesenchymal stem cells
  • Prevention of osteoarthritis after joint injuries
David Martin
  • Active polymers for bionic medical devices
  • In-situ optical and electron microscopy
  • Molecular and computational modeling
  • Quantitative comparisons with experimental data
Anja Nohe
  • Stem cell differentiation
  • Development of new treatments for bone diseases
  • Bone development
  • Development of new imaging techniques
John Slater
  • Biomimetic materials for cell & tissue engineering
  • Controlling cytoskeletal tension of cells
  • Quantification of cell generated traction forces in 3D engineered microenvironments
  • Quantification of the metastatic potential of varying cancer cell lines in a microfluidic tumor model
Millicent Sullivan
  • Biomaterials for drug and gene delivery
  • Engineering DNA-modified collagens for gene delivery during wound repair
  • Development of light-responsive nanoparticles for spatiotemporally-controlled gene modulation
  • Intracellular gene targeting for improved growth factor expression in healing bone tissues

Tissue Biomechanics

Faculty Topics
Emily Day
  • Quantitative biomechanics
  • Cancer detection and treatment
  • Particles for treatment of bone diseases
Xinqiao Jia
  • Tissue engineering
  • Fabrication and characterization of a flow-induced vocal fold bioreactor
  • Mechanical characterization of the engineered tissues at phonation frequencies
  • Mechanical characterization of the engineered tissues at nanometer length scales
Curtis Johnson
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Elastography
  • Brain Tissue Mechanics
  • Neuroimaging
Christopher Price
  • Musculoskeletal biology
  • Preventative therapy for post-traumatic osteoarthritis
  • Micro-computer tomography of bone
  • Emergent network properties of osteocytes
Karin Silbernagel
  • Tendon health and recovery
  • Mechanical characterization of tendon tissue
  • Mathematical modeling and medical imaging
Liyun Wang
  • Bone mechanobiology
  • Cellular and molecular mechanisms of osteocyte mechanosensing
  • Roles of perlecans in spine functions
  • Endothelial glycocalyx shedding in diabetes
  • Characterization and testing of musculoskeletal tissues with disorders

 

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