Bone is a remarkable material: it is strong yet lightweight, can adapt itself to changes in mechanical loading, lasts for a lifetime and can repair itself after a fracture. However, these repair mechanisms can be inhibited by bone disease and aging. Although biology has revealed many secrets of how bone cells can form and remove bone tissue, the mechanisms that control these processes, and the role of mechanical loading in this, are still not well understood, and therefore there is more work to be done to optimize pharmaceuticals, physiotherapy, medical devices and surgical techniques to improve bone repair. The goal of this course is to provide state-of-the-art information on this topic. To do so, the course will review bone cell and tissue mechanics at all three commonly distinguished levels of structural organization: the bone organ, tissue and cell levels; including multidisciplinary topics such as bone biology, imaging and computational modeling.
At the bone organ level, the focus will be on the diagnosis of bone strength using imaging and computational techniques. Bone remodeling at this level is often considered as an optimization process that adapts bone density and shape to the mechanical loading conditions. Hypothetical models that are developed to describe such adaptations of bone will be discussed. At the tissue level, bone can form remarkable complex porous architectures. This capability enables bone to adapt to a wide range of mechanical conditions, reflected by a wide spectrum of architectures and material properties. Methods to visualize and model the complex structures of this living mineral tissue in 3D in-vivo have become available only over the last 25 years. Hypothetical models describing how these structures evolve, adapt to mechanical loading and can be affected by bone diseases will be discussed.
At the level of the cell, promising candidates for the mechanosensory system will be discussed, as well as possible signaling pathways for the communication between bone cells. At this level, the microporosity of the bone tissue becomes an important factor as fluid flow plays an important role in mechanosensation. Recently developed techniques for visualizing such small structures, stimulating and manipulating cells, such as microfluidics devices for bone cell mechanobiology, 3D printing of bone stimulating implants, and tissue engineering of bone to create humanized 3D models be discussed.
It is intended that the course will function as a forum for the exchange of data, philosophy, and ideas across disciplinary divides and so provide further stimulus for a comprehensive approach to the problems of bone mechanics. To further facilitate this, we will organize a student poster-pitch presentation at the end of the first day. There will be a question and answer session at the end of all other days to stimulate discussions. The target audience are graduate students, PhD candidates and early-career faculty members. We expect an audience as diverse in background as the lecturers, that is to say - spanning across the professional spectrum from biomedical and structural engineers, to biologists, veterinarians and orthopaedic and dental surgeons.