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Deze informatie is alleen beschikbaar in het Engels
Within this division, principles from (fluid and solid) mechanics and biology are applied to a variety of biomedical problems and devices. In particular, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions and diseases of the cardio-vascular and the musculo-skeletal systems are examined.
This section focuses on model-based biomechanical analysis of the cardiovascular system, relevant for the pathophysiology, diagnosis, intervention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The section develops and uses advanced experimental (laser-Doppler, particle imaging velocimetry, ultrasound) and computational (finite elements, spectral methods) techniques in order to validate and analyze models of the cardiovascular system. Application of these cardiovascular models for functional diagnostic imaging (with MRI, Ultrasound and CT), surgical planning and intervention cardiology will become increasingly important in the clinical practice and biomedical industry. The biofluid mechanics research focuses on heat transfer in humans. Areas of interest are individual differences in energy expenditure and temperature regulation, the body temperature distribution during anaesthesia or scalp cooling and the moisture transport in the upper airways. Contact person: Prof. Frans van de Vosse.
Living tissues show an intriguing, active response to mechanical loading. Not only is the intrinsic mechanical response complicated, the ability of living tissues to adapt to mechanical loading by changing their structure and composition is fascinating. For example tissue proliferation and differentiation is significantly affected by mechanical loading. A quantitative understanding of these phenomena, through experimentation and numerical modeling, is of crucial importance for many biomedical applications. At present, the main research themes are: cell and tissue damage due to sustained loading (e.g. decubitus), the use of biomaterials in artificial prosthesis design (e.g. intervertebral disc, small diameter blood vessel), and the engineering of living tissues and organs (e.g. heart valves and intervertebral disc). Contact person: prof.dr.ir. Frank Baaijens.
In this section, the disciplines of engineering and biology are combined to expand our understanding of the biomechanical function of musculoskeletal tissues as well as their adaptive developmental and physiological nature. The current goals are to investigate the mechanisms of degenerative diseases and to develop regenerative treatment strategies as applied to three musculoskeletal tissues, i.e. bone, articular cartilage, and the intervertebral disc.