Multiscale Mechanics of Biological Tissues

Professor Virginia Ferguson talks coupling small-scale property measurements with Chemistry & Microstructure in multiscale mechanics of biological tissues.

Abstract

Biological tissues are formed by hierarchical structures that exist from nanometer to macroscopic length scales; where their properties vary depending on the length scale that is tested. Tissues are composite materials whose behaviors are strain rate dependent (i.e., vary with time), where fluid movemnt through pore spaces or in regions of highly charged molecules (e.g., proteoglycans in cartilage) influences their mechanical behavior. Our work focuses on how the quality or the underlying microstructure, composition, and material properties of tissues influence their resulting mechanical behavior and, especially, how these behaviors are altered by disrupted mechanical loading, aging, or disease. Yet evaluating these complex behaviors requires non standard approaches. We specifically emphasize the adaptation of conventional materials science research tools to the study of these complex materials and their behavior. Here, we present our unique approaches to directly couple small-scale property measurements with the underlying tissue chemistry and microstructure and we demonstrate how we use emerging analytical approaches to provide insight into the measured properties and behavior. In this talk, we will highlight these approaches in recent study of altered bone tissue quality in chronic kidney disease. We will also tie tissue assessments to our efforts to engineer complex, structured materials for osteochondral tissue regeneration in post-traumatic osteoarthritis.

Biography

Prof Virginia (Ginger) Ferguson leads the Biomechanics and Biomimetics Laboratory at the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder. She is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a Taskforce Member in the BioFrontiers Institute, and an Associate Member of the Materials Science and Engineering program; and holds Clinical Research Professor Appoinments in Orthopaedics and in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the CU School of Medicine. A major focus of her work is to develop new assays or instruments that both capture the unique properties of tissues and materials for tissue engineering and enable interpretation of these property outcomes through correlative analyses. Dr Ferguson received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and she held a joint postdoctoral appointment in Materials Science at Queen Mary, University of London and Anatomy and Development Biology at University College London with training in nanomechanical testing and quantitative backscattered electron imaging of mineralized tissues. Dr Ferguson has coauthored ~55 peer reviewed journal articles and 4 book chapters. She is also a recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award from the National Science Foundation in 2010.