Representative fluorescence micrograph showing differentiated F11 cells after 5 days in culture. Nuclei were labelled with DAPI ( blue) and Beta-III-tubulin immunoreactivity (green) was use to detect neurites. [Céline Kayal, Oxford]

Nanostructured, biocompatible scaffold to support 3D cell cultures with controled mechanical properties [Sonia Contera, Oxford]

MEG data visualization and navigation tool: Synchronization biomarkers of MCI patients [Antonio Gracia, UPM]

High-detailed synapse reconstruction: Electronic microscopy image segmentation by ESPINA software and rendered by GMRV [Marcos Garcia / Angel Rodriguez [URJC/UPM, Cajal Blue Brain]

Numerical model of a neuron under mechanical loading [Antoine Jerusalem, Oxford]

Neurites from SH-SY5Y neurons penetrate through an Isopore membrane [Hua Ye, Oxford]

Bundles of axons in porcine brain: 3,500x magnification using scanning electron microscopy [Rashid, Destrade and Gilchrist, Galway/Dublin]

Representative fluorescence micrograph showing differentiated F11 cells after 5 days in culture. Nuclei were labelled with DAPI ( blue) and Beta-III-tubulin immunoreactivity (green) was use to detect neurites. [Céline Kayal, Oxford]

The International Brain Mechanics and Trauma Lab (IBMTL)

The lab is an international initiative that was created in 2013. It involves the collaboration of 41 academics and clinicians, across 25 main institutions.

All members of the IBMTL are heavily involved in collaborative projects related directly to brain mechanics and trauma. The interaction between experts, from such a wide range of disciplines, is motivated by the need for multidisciplinary expertise to study the relationship between brain cell/tissue mechanics and brain functions/diseases/trauma:

  • Biology: stem cells, tissue engineering, physiopathology
  • Computing: supercomputing, neuroinformatics, image processing, big data analytics
  • Engineering: materials engineering, biomechanics, computational mechanics of materials, mechanobiology, systems engineering
  • Mathematics: mathematical modelling, computational statistics, continuum mechanics, data mining
  • Medical/Clinical: neurology, neuropathology, neuroimaging, veterinary medicine, neurosurgery, psychiatry
  • Neuroscience: translational neuroscience, functional connectivity and brain network architecture, brain plasticity computational modelling
  • Physics: nanoscience, cells/tissues nanomechanics, cell rheology, shockwave/ultrasound physics, biophysics

The collaboration is centred around the complementary collaboration of experts, from different disciplines, focussed on the study of the brain cell and tissue mechanics, and its relation with brain functions, diseases or trauma.

News

IBMTL NEWS

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Mathematical Modelling of the Brain

04 Jan 2022

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work alongside Professor Alain Goriely at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. The position is full time, fixed-term for 12 months, and the post-holder will be supported by a grant from the EPSRC. It is available for an immediate start. Closing Date: 12.00 noon GMT Wednesday 19th January 2022

23 PhD positions and 2 Clinician Scientist positions (m/f/d) hosted at FAU and two other participating Universities, for interdisciplinary cutting-edge research in the field of medical technology.

17 Jun 2021

The DFG funded Collaborative Research Centre – CRC 1483 – “Empatho-Kinaesthetic Sensory Systems” (EmpkinS) will investigate novel sensor and data transmission technology, as well as functional models of the human body and algorithms to enable an unobtrusive, contactless acquisition of movement parameters. 24 interdisciplinary principal investigators, and 30 newly hired researchers working within the CRC, EmpkinS will provide a globally visible research environment.

Congratulations to the winners of 6th IBMTL Workshop presentation awards

26 Apr 2021

Three outstanding presentations were awarded cash prizes by Brain Multiphysic's publisher Elsevier. Katja Heuer's Mechanical and genetic determinants of brain evolution. Miren Tamayo Elizalde, Action potential alterations induced by single neuron mechanical loading. Hadrien Oliveri, An optic ray theory for nerve durotaxis

A great place and a great team

23 Nov 2020

Dear colleagues and friends, We have two openings at Simula (one PhD and one Post-doc position) for modelling brain tumor mechanics. If you would forward to relevant candidates, that would be much appreciated! Best wishes, Marie -- Marie E. Rognes Chief Research Scientist/Research Professor Department for Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing Simula Research Laboratory

Events

IBMTL EVENTS

​6th Oxford International Neuron and Brain Mechanics Workshop

25 Nov 2020

Brain modelling and characterisation is a dynamic, inter-sectional, and distinctly international field. This multidisciplinary virtual event will foster new collaborative research and the dissemination of ideas from contemporary leaders in diverse fields: from traumatic brain injury and brain mechanics to neurodegenerative disease, neuromodulation and neuronal mechanics. This workshop is organised by the IBMTL and supported by the EPSRC grant NeuroPulse, EP/N020987/1.

"Brain Computational Mechanics" mini-symposium at the joint 14th World Congress in Computational Mechanics and ECCOMAS Congress 2020, 19-24 July 2020, Paris, France.

15 Oct 2019

The multiphysics of the brain has been the subject of a growing body of research in the recent years. In particular, the view that the brain is a physical entity subject to mechanical laws has allowed for the consideration of brain functions, traumas and diseases as phenomena directly related to morphology, brain and cell mechanics. The answer to many of these problems require invariably close collaborations between scientists in different disciplines including clinicians, biologists, engineers and mathematicians. Due to the complexity of experimental validations, it is also naturally dependent on numerical modelling. In silico testing is however not exempt of its own complexities: patient specific geometries, subsequent meshing, multiphysics constitutive modelling, multiscale approaches, among others, are all potential pitfalls experienced by the current research programmes. This symposium will focus on various aspects of brain computational mechanics. It will address new fundamental challenges of brain computational mechanics including both the classical point of view of biomechanics (e.g., constitutive modelling and mathematical implementations), as well as the numerical aspects of the different implementations (e.g., scheme convergence, multiphysics aspects) and aims at gathering experts of all fields.

“S10: Mechanics of biological materials & biomechanics” mini-symposium at the 17th European Mechanics of Materials Conferences (EMMC), Madrid, Spain 27-29 May 2020

15 Oct 2019

Mechanics plays a prominent role in the study of biological systems and processes. In particular, it is increasingly clear that the vast majority of physiological and pathological processes encountered in micro-heterogeneous biological materials are based on phenomena driven by different concurrent physics such as mechanics, biochemistry, electricity (or electrophysiology) and thermodynamics. Physiological and pathological processes span multiple scales in length, time and energy and, even then, one process’ scales can sit at one end or another depending on whether it is considered in isolation or along with its larger systemic interaction to generate function at a higher level. Although, to some extent, traditional applied material mechanics concepts are a priori directly applicable to describe biological materials, their inherent property to adapt to mechanical and chemical environments remains a challenging modeling task and requires dedicated multiscale and multiphysics frameworks. In modelling tissue mechanics and mechanobiology, advanced material mechanical models thus need to become multiphysics models. The main goal of this session is to attract scientists from a wide variety of disciplines interested in such multiphysics considerations in the context of biology. This symposium should be a good opportunity for the participants to refine their ideas for future work and to establish possible cooperation.

Symposium on Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation, 23-24 Sept, Oxford

30 May 2019

Focused ultrasound is rapidly becoming the next generation brain stimulation: non-invasive, focal, deep brain neuromodulation. Pioneers and leaders in the field will speak at a 2-day international symposium on 23-24 Sept, 2019, at Oriel College, Oxford. This event will bring together researchers developing and using ultrasound as a tool for stimulation and manipulation of the brain and take an integrative and translational approach.