Biomechanics & Biosystems Engineering
How do proteins transport materials within a cell? How does the human ear automatically accommodate loud noises? How are biological accelerometers used to control balance?
The mechanics of materials, motion, and fluids are central to many aspects of biology and medicine. Mechanical engineers at U-M develop new devices and methodologies for a wide variety of biomedical and scientific applications. See how mechanical engineering applies to an enormous range of scales.
Research Highlights
Molecule
Protein motors (Nanomechanics Laboratory)
Coiling of DNA (Perkins Laboratory)
Cell
Cell Adhesion and Mechanics (Garikipati Lab)
Biomicrofluidics (Microsystems Technology and Science Laboratory)
Neurobiology of C. elegans (Chronis Group)
Tissue
Mechanics of muscle, tendon, skin (Arruda Biomaterials Laboratory)
Engineering of bone and ligaments (Orthopaedic Research Laboratories)
Mechanics of biological composites (Computational Mechanics Laboratory)
Micromechanics of biomaterials (Thouless Laboratory)
Organ
The inner ear (Grosh Laboratory)
The bladder (Biomechanics Research Laboratory)
Wound healing (Heterogeneous Multiscale Materials Laboratory)
Body
Prosthetic limbs (Human Biomechanics and Control Lab)
Rehabilitation (Biomechanics Research Laboratory, Sienko Laboratory)
Sensory augmentation (Sienko Laboratory)
Mechanics of swimming (Schultz Laboratory)
Medicine
Laparoscopic surgery tools (BioMEMS/NanoPositioning Lab)
Wearable biomedical monitoring devices (Perkins Laboratory, Sienko Laboratory)
Lab on a chip (Hart Lab)
Biomedical device design (Shih Laboratory)
Biomedical impact of nanoparticles (Multiscale Computational Nanoscience Lab)
Systems
Mechanics and control of human walking (Human Biomechanics and Control Lab)
Biologically inspired robots (Microsystems Laboratory)
Robotic aids for disabled (Mobile Robotics Laboratory)
Human-machine interfaces (Haptix Laboratory)