Current research

Our work focuses on understanding the fundamental aspects of growth, remodeling, and damage in biological and physical systems through the lens of continuum mechanics. This approach allows us to formulation a mathematical model and analyze the complex interactions within biological and physical matter. 

From a continuum mechanics perspective, growth involves the deformation and proliferation of biological tissues, influenced by mechanical stimuli through mechanotransduction, which regulates cell proliferation and tissue expansion. Remodeling entails adaptive changes in tissue properties driven by continuous mechanical and biochemical feedback, including ECM remodeling and cellular responses to mechanical changes. Damage analysis uses continuum damage mechanics to understand material degradation under stress and strain, applying models to predict tissue failure, fracture mechanics to study crack propagation, and simulate the healing process for optimizing tissue repair and regeneration. Some areas of our work include

• Pathological myopia: the growth of the eye involves the principles of soft tissue growth and is influenced by the flow patterns, vessel architecture, interocular pressure etc. Thus, continuum mechanics will enable better predict potential for development of pathological myopia and other eye diseases.

• Vascular remodelling: the blood vessels adapt to mechanical forces through remodeling. By applying principles of continuum mechanics, we explore the processes governing angiogenesis and vascular adaptation, aiming to enhance therapeutic strategies for vascular diseases. 

• Neurovascular diseases: can be identified by changes to arterial transit times of blood flow. However, only the larger vessels can be imaged and not the smaller capillaries. The blood flow is strongly influenced by the network architecture, previous states of damage and remodelling. Using the ideas of continuum mechanics of porous materials, the interaction between electro-chemo-flow can be used to better understand onset of neurovascular diseases.