September 1, 2005

Tissue Mechanics Laboratory Receives $200,000 Grant for New Equipment

  — Machine Purchase Will Aid Biomedical Research in Joint Degeneration, Arterial Stents and New Biomaterials

The Tissue Mechanics Laboratory at North Carolina State University has received a $200,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to purchase an MTS axial-torsion servo-hydraulic load frame, making the laboratory the only facility in North Carolina to have this machine available for testing biological tissues.

Developed jointly by the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Tissue Mechanics Laboratory has the capability for testing specimens as small as a few millimeters to full-sized, multijoint body parts. The new machine will expand the testing capabilities, allowing researchers to reproduce multiaxial mechanical forces that more closely replicate the natural forces that affect living tissues. The ability to reproduce these forces is important for research concerned with new biomaterials, osteoarthritis and other degenerative joint diseases, bone fracture repair and arterial stent materials.

“Normal, living tissue, such as knee joints, experience mechanical loading from more than one direction,” says Dr. Peter Mente, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and biological and agricultural engineering. “For example, research on the changes that occur to injured cartilage in knee joints requires replicating forces that occur in a typical knee injury. This new machine will allow us to reproduce the vertical loading — compression from supporting body weight above the joint — as well as torsion, or twisting, that a knee joint experiences during injury.”

The grant will also fund upgrades to other equipment in the laboratory for improved axial loading abilities. The laboratory is a multiple-use facility for education and academic and industry-related research.

— weston —

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