The inaugural Mechanobiology Down Under meeting was held at the Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club in Sydney on 3–4 May 2018.
Amongst high-calibre presentations by world leaders and experts in the mechanobiology field, the latest research from collaborations with HRI were presented. Dr Qian (Peter) Su from the Institute for Biomedical Materials & Devices, UTS presented on the super resolution microscopy technology being developed by HRI and UTS, the first of its kind for cardiovascular diseases in Australia.
HRI visiting scholar Ms Jiexi Liao from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA presented a novel mechanism on mechanical regulation of blood clotting discovered using biomembrane force probe technology, another key collaboration for HRI. “Receiving positive feedback from our peers in the mechanobiology community was very rewarding,” says Dr Lining (Arnold) Ju, lead scientist at HRI in this project. “It’s also exciting to be collaborating on technology that pushes the science frontier.”
Mechanobiology is an emerging interdisciplinary field that studies how mechanical forces regulate biological processes. This has significant implications for heart research as the cardiovascular system is globally affected by mechanical factors such as blood pressure, shear stress in blood flow and tissue mechanical properties.
Image of Australia-like platelet taken on the first super-resolution imaging platform for cardiovascular diseases in Australia. Image courtesy of Dr Qian (Peter) Su (IBMD, UTS) and Dr Lining (Arnold) Ju (Thrombosis Group, HRI)