Biomechanics and Mechanobiology
Focusing on mechanics at and across the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ levels
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.
Associated Faculty
Cameron R. Bass
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Louis Edwin DeFrate
Laszlo Ormandy Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Ken Gall
Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Brenton D. Hoffman
James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
David F. Katz
Nello L. Teer, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, in the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School of Engineering
Jason F Luck
Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Samira Musah
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Barry S. Myers
Coulter Program Director, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Kathryn Radabaugh Nightingale
Director of Graduate Studies, Theo Pilkington Distinguished Professor of BME
Amanda Randles
Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences
George A. Truskey
R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Shyni Varghese
Laszlo Ormandy Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Fan Yuan
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Other Research Specialties
Explore additional specialty research areas in Duke BME and throughout the Pratt School of Engineering.