ENGINEERING TRIPOS PART IIB – 2012/2013

Module 4G6 - Cellular and Molecular Biomechanics

Leader:	Prof. V. Deshpande (vsd@eng)
Lecturers:	Prof. V. Deshpande and Prof N Fleck
Timing:	Michaelmas Term
Prerequisites:	3C7 useful
Structure:	14 lectures + 2 examples classes
Assessment:	Material / Format / Timing / Marks Report / End of Michaelmas Term / 100 % Exam

AIMS

The course deals with the relation between microstructure of and properties such as strength, stiffness and actuation capability of natural materials such as cells and tissues and their properties, including stiffness.

Further details and online resources

LECTURE SYLLABUS

Overview Lecture (Prof N. A. Fleck 1L)

The microstructure of the cell – animal cells, plant cells and the sub-cell building materials.

Mechanical Properties of Soft Solids (4L) (Prof. N A Fleck)

• The mechanical properties of natural materials – property maps
• Bending versus stretching micro-structures and entropic networks
• The notion of persistence length
• Models of stiffness and strength
• Mechanics of skin: stress v. strain responses, toughness and skin injection

The cytoskeleton (4L) (Prof.V. Deshpande)

• Review of basic thermodynamics and kinetics
• Introduction to cytoskeletal components and basics mechanics of the filaments
• Re-organization of the cytoskeletal filaments: polymerization, force generation and an introduction to motility

Muscle Mechanics (5L) (Prof.V. Deshpande)

• Twitch and tetanus and the Hill model
• Structure of the muscle: fibers, fibrils and contractile proteins
• Sources of energy in the muscle- Lohmann reaction
• Huxley Sliding filament model
• Models of myosin

OBJECTIVES

On completion of the module students should:

• Understand the relation between micro-structure of soft biological materials and their mechanical properties
• Have a working understanding of the various components within plant and animal cells with a more detailed knowledge of the cytoskeletal components.
• Understand the origins of the mechanical forces generated due to the polymerization of cytoskeletal proteins and derive the key equations.
• Develop an understanding of muscles as actuators at the tissue, cell and protein length scales.

REFERENCES

Please see the Booklist for Group G Courses for references for this module.

Last updated: June 2012

teaching-office@eng.cam.ac.uk