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Mechanics of Biological Tissues

Cartilage impact
Related publication Bartell, et al., 2015. Measuring microscale strain fields in articular cartilage during rapid impact reveals thresholds for chondrocyte death and a protective role for the superficial layer. Journal of Biomechanics. PDF link
Articular cartilage (AC), a biological tissue that protects and lubricates joints, plays a critical role during healthy locomotion.  Ongoing work in the Cohen lab has been examining the spatially heterogeneous mechanical properties of this tissue using confocal rheology.  This technique allows us to simultaneously deform the tissue with a known stress and measure the local strain field.  From this information, we can calculate the local shear properties.