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Phone:: (023) 8059 3300
Email:: B.G.Sengers@soton.ac.uk

Dr Bram G Sengers MSc, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr Bram G Sengers is an Associate Professor in Bioengineering within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.

My research focuses on computational modelling of complex biological problems, such as nutrient transfer in the placenta and how to promote bone and cartilage regeneration

Bram is based in Bioengineering within Engineering Sciences. His research is highly multidisciplinary and carried out in close collaboration with experimental groups in the Faculty of Medicine in Southampton.

Career history

Bram received and MSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands in 2000, developing multi-scale finite element models for studying muscle cell damage. He continued in Eindhoven to obtain a PhD on computational modelling for cartilage tissue engineering in 2005. Moving to Southampton, he joined the Bone and Joint Research Group at the Faculty of Medicine as a postdoctoral research fellow, gaining hands-on expertise in tissue culture working on cell ingrowth for bone repair. In 2009 he was appointment lecturer in the Bioengineering Group within the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment in Southampton.

Research

Publications

Contact

Research interests

Dr Sengers is interested in combining biological experiments with advanced engineering methods to understand better complex biological systems and inform medical treatment.

Specific interests include:

Placental nutrient transport and membrane kinetics (how do nutrients such as amino acids get from the mother to the fetus and how does transport work as an integrated system).
Improving tissue regeneration strategies for bone and cartilage (how can we combine cells with biomaterials to functionally repair damaged tissue);
Cell ingrowth in complex porous biomaterials for tissue repair (how do cells populate porous implants, how do they form new tissue and how to make this strong enough);
Nutrient transport and cellular metabolism in tissue engineered constructs (making sure cells have enough to eat for constructs of clinically relevant size);

Techniques used in his research projects integrate specifically designed placental perfusion and cell culture experiments with computational approaches, custom finite element methods, microscopy, micro CT and image analysis.

Modelling placental transport

Cell growth and cytoskeletal organisation in micro-fabricated pores — Cell growth

Experiments and computer simulation of cell migration on complex 3D structures — Experiments and computer simulation

Microstructural models based on micro-CT — microstructural models

Cells growing and filling pores in trabecular bone structures — Cells growing and filling pores

New tissue formation by bone marrow cells — New tissue formation

Research group

Bioengineering Science

Research project(s)

Feature extraction in clinical data

Data mining techniques commonly used in engineering are being applied to continuously monitored human bio-indicators to predict health state.

Mathematical modelling of fatty acid transport in the human placenta

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Articles

Conferences

Mills, B., Grant-Jacob, J., MacKay, B. S., Lewis, R., & Sengers, B. (2022). Modelling of 3D placental cell features using deep learning. In BIOIMAGING22-20
Perazzolo, S., Lewis, R., & Sengers, B. (2016). Modelling nutrient transfer based on 3D imaging of the human placental microstructure. Paper presented at 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 2016 (EMBC), United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2016.7592084
Perazzolo, S., Hirschmugl, B., Wadsack, C., Desoye, G., Lewis, R., & Sengers, B. G. (2015). Computational modelling of fatty acid transport in the human placenta. 8054-8057. Paper presented at Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE, Italy. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2015.7320262
Sengers, B. G., Please, C. P., Taylor, M., & Oreffo, R. O. C. (2009). Experimental-computational evaluation of human bone marrow stromal cell migration on trabecular bone structures. In P. J. Bartolo, P. R. Fernandes, R. B. Ruben, J. Folgado, H. Almeida, N. Alves, & A. Mendes (Eds.), Proceedings of ICTE2009 International Conference on Tissue Engineering (pp. 119-122). (ECCOMAS thematic conference). IST Press.

Reviews

Lewis, R., Cleal, J., & Sengers, B. (2020). Placental perfusion and mathematical modelling. Placenta, 93, 43-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2020.02.015
Cleal, J. K., Lofthouse, E. M., Sengers, B. G., & Lewis, R. M. (2018). A systems perspective on placental amino acid transport. The Journal of Physiology, 596(23), 5511-5522. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP274883

Dr Bram G Sengers
Engineering, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton. SO17 1BJ United Kingdom

Room Number : 7/4079/M7

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