microscope image of cells

Biomechanics and Mechanobiology

Our biomechanics and mechanobiology research focuses upon mechanics at and across the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels.

While biomechanics research largely involves determining, manipulating, and testing the forces and deformations experienced by biological tissues, tissue replacements, or their constitutive elements, mechanobiology studies how physical cues, such as applied forces or the stiffness of the environment around the cell, affect cell behavior.

Research efforts range from applications in orthopaedics, injury mechanics, biomaterial and tissue engineering design to those aimed at affecting disease states where mechanical perturbations in tissues are known to augment pathogenesis, such as cancer and atherosclerosis.

Collaborations in this area at Duke involve faculty from the Duke University Medical Center divisions of Cardiology, Hematology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ophthalmology, and Rheumatology, as well as faculty in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Mechanical Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering and the departments of Biology and Cell Biology in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

Primary Faculty

Brenton D. Hoffman

James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Focused on understanding, on a molecular level, how mechanical and chemical cues from the environment are detected, integrated, and manipulated by cells to dictate physiological and patho-physiological responses important in vascular biology.

David F. Katz

Nello L. Teer, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, in the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School of Engineering

Research Interests: Methods for prophylaxis against STD's, emphasizing topical microbicides and contraception; biofluid mechanics; rheology and transport phenomena; biophysical aspects of mammalian sperm motility, sperm transport, and fertilization; and biomechanical functioning of the vitreous of…

Jason F Luck

Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Samira Musah

Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), disease mechanisms, regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human kidney development and disease, organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarkers, therapeutic discovery, tissue and organ transplantation,…

Barry S. Myers

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: An expert in head and neck impact injury biomechanics, Dr. Myers is interested in translational research innovation—overseeing programs to advance faculty research to market.

Kathryn Radabaugh Nightingale

Theo Pilkington Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Ultrasonic and elasticity imaging, specifically nonlinear propagation, acoustic streaming and radiation force; the intentional generation of these phenomena for the purpose of tissue characterization; finite element modeling of normal and diseased tissue when exposed to…

Amanda Randles

Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences

Research Interests: Biomedical simulation and high-performance computing

George A. Truskey

R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Cardiovascular tissue engineering, mechanisms of atherogenesis, cell adhesion, and cell biomechanics.

Shyni Varghese

Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Orthopaedics

Research Interests: Musculoskeletal tissue repair, disease biophysics and organ-on-a-chip technology

Fan Yuan

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Principles and mechanisms of delivery for drugs, genes, and vaccines; pharmacokinetics; electrotransfer or electroporation technology; and tumor pathophysiology.

Secondary Faculty

Louis Edwin DeFrate

Laszlo Ormandy Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

Ken Gall

Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Research Interests: Materials science, mechanical properties, metals and polymers. Specialties: Shape memory materials, biomaterials, 3D printing.

Piotr E. Marszalek

Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Research Interests: Investigating relationships between structural and mechanical properties of biopolymers (polysaccharides, DNA, proteins), at a single molecule level.

Stefan Zauscher

Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Research Interests: Nano-mechanical and nano-tribological characterization (elasticity, friction, adhesion) of materials including organic thin films; self-assembled monolayers, polymeric gels, and cellulosics; Fabrication of polymeric nanostructures by scanning probe lithography; Colloidal probe…

Pei Zhong

Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Research Interests: Mechanistic investigation and technology development in shock wave and laser lithotripsy; Ultrasound-elicited mechanotransduction, neuromodulation and sonogenetics; HIFU and immunotherapy for cancer treatment; Acoustic and optical cavitation.

Research Faculty

Cameron R. Bass

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Biomechanics of blast, blunt and ballistic trauma and pediatric trauma. His research focuses on injury risk from microscale to macroscale for the head, neck, thorax and extremities.