Research

• Biomechanics & Biosystems Engineering

  How do proteins transport materials within a cell? How does the human ear automatically accommodate loud noises? How are biological accelerometers used to control balance? The mechanics of materials, motion, and fluids are central to many aspects of biology and medicine. Mechanical engineers at U-M develop new devices and methodologies for a wide variety of biomedical and scientific applications. See how mechanical engineering applies to an enormous range of scales

• Research Highlights

  Molecule Coiling of DNA (Perkins Laboratory) Protein motors (Nanomechanics Laboratory) Protein docking simulation (Saitou Laboratory) DNA/protein dynamics in confining environments (Fu Laboratory)
  Cell Cell adhesion and mechanics (Garikipati Lab) Biomicrofluidics (Microsystems Technology and Science Laboratory) Neurobiology of C. elegans (Chronis Group) Cell mechanics and mechanotransduction; Engineering stem cell microenvironments (Fu Laboratory)
  Tissue Mechanics of muscle, tendon, skin (Arruda Biomaterials Laboratory) Engineering of bone and ligaments (Orthopaedic Research Laboratories) Mechanics of biological composites (Computational Mechanics Laboratory) Micromechanics of biomaterials (Thouless Laboratory)
  Organ The inner ear (Grosh Laboratory) Vaginal birth-related injuries (Biomechanics Research Laboratory) Wound healing (Heterogeneous Multiscale Materials Laboratory)
  Body ACL injuries, falls in the elderly (Biomechanics Research Laboratory) Prosthetic limbs (Human Biomechanics and Control Lab) Rehabilitation (Biomechanics Research Laboratory, Sienko Laboratory) Sensory augmentation (Sienko Laboratory) Mechanics of swimming (Schultz Laboratory)
  Medicine Global health design (Sienko Laboratory) Image-guided radiation therapy (Saitou Laboratory) Laparoscopic surgery tools (BioMEMS/NanoPositioning Lab) Wearable biomedical monitoring devices (Perkins Laboratory, Sienko Laboratory) Lab on a chip (Hart Lab) Biomedical device design (Shih Laboratory) Biomedical impact of nanoparticles (Multiscale Computational Nanoscience Lab)
  Systems Mechanics and control of human walking (Human Biomechanics and Control Lab) Biologically inspired robots (Microsystems Laboratory) Image-based chemical database annotation (Saitou Laboratory) Robotic aids for disabled (Mobile Robotics Laboratory) Human-machine interfaces (Haptix Laboratory)

• Researchers

  Ellen Arruda	Mechanics of muscles, tendons, skin
  James Ashton-Miller	The bladder, prosthetic limbs
  Johann Borenstein	Robotic aids for disabled
  Nikos Chronis	Neurobiology of C. elegans
  Krishna Garikipati	Cell adhesion and mechanics
  Jianping Fu	DNA/protein dynamics in confining environments; cell mechanics and mechanotransduction; engineering stem cell microenvironments
  Brent Gillespie	Human-machine interfaces
  Karl Grosh	Structural acoustics, cochlear mechanics, electroacoustic transducers
  A. John Hart	Lab on a chip
  Art Kuo	Rehabilitation, mechanics and control of human walking
  Edgar Meyhöfer	Protein motors
  Noel Perkins	Coiling of DNA, wearable biomedical monitoring devices
  Kazu Saitou	Protein docking, radiation therapy, chemoinformatics
  Ann Marie Sastry	Wound healing
  Albert Shih	Biomedical device design
  Kathleen Sienko	Rehabilitation, sensory augmentation, wearable biomedical monitoring devices
  Michael Thouless	Micromechanics of biomaterials
  Angela Violi	Biomedical impact of nanoparticles