RO3 : Biomechanics and Living Materials

Activities

Biological tissues have multi-scale architectures. It is the interlocking structures at different scales that give them their remarkable physical, and in particular mechanical, properties.

Nevertheless, the structures at different scales are not yet fully described and understood, nor is their link with their mechanical properties.

Moreover, due to their living nature, they are systems that are constantly evolving and renewing themselves. Living organisms are constantly subjected to different stimuli and cells receive mechanical, chemical or biophysical information and can induce structural adaptation of the tissue. Thus, biological tissues show a great variability between individuals, which makes their study even more complex.

Based on these findings, the objective of this RO is twofold:

• To understand the behaviour of natural tissues and engineered biomaterials using morphological and mechanical analysis at relevant scales
• To develop substitute materials to either repair, replace, regenerate or mimic natural tissues

Our approach is based on the observation, description and understanding of phenomena at all relevant scales of the material or tissue under consideration through a dialogue between experiments and simulation. The originality of our approach is to draw inspiration from the approaches developed for other architectural media, in particular fibrous composites, to describe and understand the macroscopic behaviour of fabrics based on the interaction and competition between elementary mechanisms at fine scales.
Our work has applications in bone tissue engineering, restorative dentistry, orthopaedic surgery, surgical training, etc.