MRes Bioengineering research project (new)
Title of the project:
Mechanical behaviour of the lung parenchyma across species
Supervisor 1: Dr Hari Arora
Department: Department of Bioengineering
Imperial College campus: South Kensington
email: ha304@ic.ac.uk
Supervisor 2: Prof Robert C. Schroter
Department: Department of Bioengineering
Imperial College campus: South Kensington
email: r.schroter@imperial.ac.uk
Project Description: (up to 200 words)
The use of scaled animal tissue experiments is prevalent throughout the field with regard to
prediction of human biomechanics. The area of scaling is vast, with many different approached
used in the analytical models for these such predictions. The number of variables at play are huge
and one such variable is the composition of the tissue that is being tested. Lung tissue for example
in a rodent compared to human will vary in the scale of the alveoli, porosity/wall thickness and
wall composition.
This project will aim to mechanically test the lungs tissue from 3+ species under different modes
of loading i.e. compression and tension. Stress-strain curves will be compared across the species
for a given strain rate and rate sensitivity will be quantified for each species. Differences will be
analysed using detailed histology and advanced imaging segmentation techniques. These will be
used highlight differences in tissue makeup e.g. volume fraction of tissue material per volume of
sample. From here data can be normalised based on different criteria, such as volume fraction, to
inform us about an appropriate translation procedure from species to species.
Key techniques: (please include only the names of techniques, not a description)
Mechanical testing – tension and compression
Data analysis
Histology
Optical microscopy
Image analysis
References: (up to 3 references related to the project)
Béla Suki and Jason H. T. Bates, Lung tissue mechanics as an emergent phenomenon, 2011, J Appl
Physiol 110: 1111–1118