New nano biomaterials inspired by biomechanics

Published on May 4, 2015 Archived on May 31, 2023   52 min

Other Talks in the Series: Nanomedicine

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0:00
Hi, this is Lei Yang. I'm currently a professor at the Orthopedic Institute and Department of Orthopedics, the First Affiliated Hospital, Soochow University in China. And the title of my talk today is New Nano Biomaterials Inspired by Biomechanics.
0:20
This is the outline for today's talk. I'm going to cover several parts on this topic. First I will begin with a brief introduction to some basic concepts of biomechanics. Secondly, I would like to introduce two examples of new nano biomaterials that have been developed inspired by biomechanics. In the first example I'm going to talk about design of nanomaterial topographic guidance to regulate cell functions. And the second one where we give an example of thermodynamically inspired nanocrystalline diamond for controlling cell migration. And last, I will give you a brief summary on this topic.
1:04
Please allow me to introduce you to some basic concepts and why we want to use biomechanics to design the new biomaterials.
1:16
The role of the mechanics in biology is very obvious. And many people has realized that mechanics actually play an important role in a variety of biological and physiological processes. For example, in any physical injuries, they're probably involved in mechanics. When we are talking about a bone fracture, the torn cartilage or ligaments, there is always high energy impacts, or high stress or strain involved in those injuries. When we're talking about a cardiovascular disease, which is just showing in the picture, there is fluid mechanics involved in this. When people are designing the cardiovascular stents, you always have to consider how the blood flow as it goes through and it goes around those man-made materials. And surprisingly, in cancer development mechanics actually play a role in it too. Scientists has recently discovered that the cancer cells have completely different mechanical properties compared to other types of normal cells. So looking at mechanics actually can give us a lot of insights to how the cancer has been developed, and finding out the way to fighting it. In the last example, which is showing in the lower right image here the head trauma and brain damage, obviously you understand when the trauma happens, when your head hit on a wall, there is a coup injury at the front of your head. However, not many people have realized that because of the viscoelastic property of your brain, your brain actually will bounce back and hit the rear parts of your skull. And this will introduce a counter coup injury. So all these examples tell you the mechanics plays a very important role in the tissue or organ level, and sometimes in your whole body biological processes. So how about the mechanics at a smaller level?

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