Computational Modelling Group - Mechanobiology applied to study chronic wounds

Time: 14:00 

Place: 07/3019 (Lanchester Building)

Cells are subjected to mechanical loads as a result of physiological function of the body, including weight-bearing, gravity, inertia or cavity pressures. Mechanical loads within cells and cell organelles influence cellular function and are sometimes crucial for normal cell function. Excessive loading or sub-normal loading however may cause cell damage or cell death; for example critically elevated loads may damage cells instantaneously as in an acute injury, or over time as in chronic wounds. Cells are also dynamic living structures that can move or migrate – by producing mechanical forces and by interacting with their surroundings. The intracellular architecture and mechanical properties of cells and their organelles are important factors affecting these processes, and so is the extracellular environment. The present talk will focus on the experimental and computational bioengineering methods and techniques developed in our lab to obtain data on cellular loads, mechanical properties and mechanical function of cells and organelles, in order to ultimately provide better understanding of how cells actually function and how do they react to their environment and respond to loading, in the context of chronic wound research. Examples will be provided in studying cell deformations under external loading, models of cell motility and mechanotaxis, models of events in a cell's life cycle and differentiation of cells subjected to mechanical stimuli; cellular damage and injury models; and multiphysics problems in cellular biomechanics.

Speaker Information:

http://cmg.soton.ac.uk/events/event-555/