PhD Studentship: Understanding and preventing shock-induced tissue injury using dynamic nanofluidics

Mechanical shock is a common source of cellular and tissue damage, which may further trigger inflammation and degeneration. We currently lack a well-established understanding of the quantitative correlation between biological injuries and detailed mechanical conditions (e.g., shock magnitude, duration, rise time, and loading rate), particularly across different timescales. This limits our ability to understand and prevent damage from slower blunt-force trauma to higher-rate impact and shock.

Our previous work (Nat Mater 20, 1015, 2021) demonstrated a new molecular mechanism for efficient and reusable shock absorption by squeezing water into hydrophobic nanopores, effective down to nanosecond timescales. We will bring this concept into biology to explore how this mechanism shapes stress waves and the mechanical energy transmitted to tissues, and how these changes regulate biological injury.

Using our suite of compression and shock techniques (with in-situ characterisation capability), from static loading to microsecond and nanosecond pulses, combined with a flexible material platform incorporating various porous materials (metal-organic frameworks, zeolites, silica, aerogels) and liquids, we will be able to tune loading timescale, rise time, pressure amplitude, and transmitted energy onto different biological systems. The local placement and design of porous materials may also allow spatial control of the mechanical microenvironment. Example biological outcomes will include cell viability and deformation, stress and inflammatory gene expression, and tissue integrity and cracking damage.

By correlating mechanical inputs, water intrusion, and biological outcomes, we will build fundamental knowledge at the interface of high-rate nanofluidics and mechanobiology, where nanofluidic energy absorption is exploited as both a protective mechanism and a tool to control mechanical conditions for biological tissues.

Funding notes:

This is a PhD studentship with the Midlands Integrated Biosciences Training Partnership, funded by BBSRC and in partnership with the University of Warwick, University of Birmingham, Aston University, Harper Adams University, Coventry University, and the University of Leicester.

For more details please visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mibtp/ or https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/about/college-of-life-and-environmental-sciences/midlands-integrative-biosciences-training-partnership

References:
1. Sun Y, Rogge SMJ, Lamaire A, Vandenbrande S, Wieme J, Siviour CR, Van Speybroeck V, Tan J-C. High-rate nanofluidic energy absorption in porous zeolitic frameworks. Nature Materials, 20(7), 1015–1023 (2021).
2. Sun Y, Jiang H. Mechanical energy absorption of metal–organic frameworks. In: Tan J-C (ed.), Mechanical Behaviour of Metal–Organic Framework Materials, Royal Society of Chemistry, pp. 267–338 (2023).
3. Lai B, Liu S, Cahir J, Sun Y, Yin H, Youngs T, Tan J-C, Fonrouge SF, Del Pópolo MG, Borioni JL, Crawford DE, Alexander FM, Li C, Bell SEJ, Murrer B, James SL. Liquids with high compressibility. Advanced Materials, 35(44), 2306521 (2023).