Ongoing Research Projects
Skin Multilayer Mechanobiology (Project Lead by David Sachs)
Skin is a complex structure composed of several distinct layers. In general, as depicted in figure 1, the three main layers accounted for are epidermis, dermis and hypodermis ... Read Project Details
Micro Topography Patterning of General Elastomer Surfaces for the Endothelialization of Ventricular Assist Devices (Project Lead by Xi Wu)
Synthetic substrate with a monolayer of endothelial cells (EC) could form the basis of a 100% haemocompatible blood pump. However, cells could experience supra-physiological wall shear stress (WSS) in artificial blood pumps such as ... Read Project Details
The Role of Chemomechanical Coupling in Skin and its Clinical Implications (Project Lead by Anastasiya Martyts)
Internal and external mechanical forces naturally occur in skin on various magnitudes and time scales. It is known that such forces can actively affect skin mechanics, biology, and wound healing ... Read Project Details
Endothelial Monolayer Response to Stretch and the Role of Senescence (Project Lead by Young Choi)
The endothelium—a single-cell thick, continuous layer of endothelial cells—covers the internal surfaces of all our blood and lymph vessels ... Read Project Details
The Effect of Environmental Conditions on the Biomechanical Properties of Soft Collagenous Tissues (Project Lead by Serjosha Robmann)
Soft collagenous tissues (SCT) as the fetal membrane (FM) or the liver capsule (GC) serve vital functions and undergo large deformations during their lifespan. Failure of these can result in perilous situations ... Read Project Details
Fracture Behavior of Elastomers and Soft Collagenous Tissues (Project Lead by Eleni Kahle)
Assessing the fracture behavior of soft collagenous tissues (SCTs), such as the fetal membrane or the liver capsule, is highly relevant for numerous clinical applications ... Read Project Details
Multiscale Characterization of Skin (Project Lead by Håvar Junker)
On the macro-scale (mm to cm), the mechanical properties of skin have been investigated using a wide range of techniques of fundamentally different working principles. A few examples are ... Read Project Details
The Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on Endothelial Cells (Project Lead by Dunja Al-Nuaimi)
Endothelial cells (ECs) are specialized cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels. The vascular environment provides a unique set of stimuli to ECs, which impact fundamental biological processes such as ... Read Project Details
Conductive Skin (Project Lead by Dr. Andreas Kourouklis)
An increasing number of heart failure (HF) patients receive left ventricular-assisted devices (LVAD) to repair physiological flow in the cardiac tissue. Currently, the high amount of power required ... Read Project Details
A Computational Model of the Cytoskeletal Network of Endothelial Cell Layers (Project Lead by Raphael Jakob)
The mechanical state of deformation as well as forces inside cells and at their boundaries play an important role for cell fate. Processes such as cell movement on a substrate ... Read Project Details
Development of a 3D Model of the Dermal Niche (Project Lead by Lorenza Garau Paganella)
Human skin is a complex, multilayered organ that is subjected to several mechanical and biochemical stimuli, which can modulate cell activity and affect skin function and ... Read Project Details
In-vivo Mechanical Characterization of Skin (Project Lead by Dr. Bettina Thumm)
The skin is the largest and most functionally complex organ in our body. It serves as a barrier protecting us from external influences ... Read Project Details
Phase Separation-Induced Microstructures (Project Lead by Dr. Alberto Stracuzzi)
Phase separation is a physical process that occurs when a mixed, homogeneous mixture of substances separates in different phases ... Read Project Details
Characterization and Modelling of Biomaterials for Applications in Biohybrid Robotics (Project Lead by Tuba Majid)
Biohybrid Robots represents an interdisciplinary field that merges the advantages of living systems with synthetic, engineered materials to create robots for personalized and responsive technology ... Read Project Details
Computational and Experimental Analysis of the Structure and Mechanics of Collagen Hydrogels (Project Lead by Kim Busenhart)
The project aims to gain further insights into the complex mechanical behavior of soft collagenous tissues across different length scales. It combines computational work with experiments ... Read Project Details