NEWS
11/18/2022: Our collaborative paper with Dr. Steven Mentzer,"Topography of pleural epithelial structure enabled by en face isolation and machine learning", is acceptable for publication in Journal of Cellular Physiology. Congratulations to all!
11/16/2022: Our team (with Dr. Khalil and Dr. Mentzer) received MassVenture Acorn Innovator award. Thanks for the generous support, MassVenture!
11/3/2022: Our collaborative paper with Dr. Xiaoming Mao entitled "Multistable Topological Mechanical Metamaterials" (https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.05826?context=physics) has been accepted for publication in PNAS. Congratulations to all!
10/5/2022: Our collaborative paper with Dr. Feng Guo entitled "Engineering human spinal microphysiological systems to model opioid-induced tolerance" has been accepted for publication in Bioactive Materials. Congratulations to all!
9/19/2022: Our paper entitled "Kinetics of Pectin Biopolymer Facial Erosion Characterized by Fluorescent Tracer Microfluidics" has been published in Polymers! Congratulations to all and especially to to Matthew on publishing his first lead-author paper!
8/1/2022: Congratulations to Matthew Liao who will start his MD program at Cornell Weil School of Medicine!
6/1/2022: Our lab received Fund to Sustain Research Excellence award ($50k) from Brigham Research Institute.
3/29/2022: Congratulations to Haning and Joesph on winning Microgrant Awards!
3/23/2022: Our reusable transparent mask been selected as a finalist for Phase 2 of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) -NIOSH-NIST Mask Innovation Challenge: https://lnkd.in/d_rrs5uC. Congratulations to the team!
3/21/2022: Our Virtual Staple technique has been selected as a finalist in the 11th annual M2D2 $200K Challenge! Our team (Chen, Khalil, and Mentzer) will compete for $200,000 in in-kind services and research support from UMass Lowell, UMass Medical School, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and leading medtech companies.
Alumnus in space: Zi Chen gets NSF grant to conduct research on the ISS
Branco Weiss Alumnus Zi Chen has received a $400,000 grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), to lead a three-year research project on the International Space Station (ISS). Zi Chen is an Assistant Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, USA.
Chen’s proposal was one of just three selected from institutions across the USA. With the funding for his project, “ISS: Unveiling the Mechanical Roles of Gravity and Buoyancy in Embryonic Brain and Heart Torsion,” he aims to identify the biomechanical mechanisms that drive the shape changes in early embryonic brain and heart development.
“It’s rare to be able to test hypotheses such as ours, especially as there has been a lack of opportunity in accessing the International Space Station until recently,” said Chen, who noted that the research topic has garnered significant interest despite the little existing available data. “Any simulated micro-gravity conditions can only be done for a few seconds if you're lucky, but embryonic development takes course over at least a period of hours and days.”In an abnormal chick embryo, the heart loops to the left-hand side and the brain also turn leftwards, forming a shape that resembles a question mark. In a normal embryo the opposite is true, i.e., the heart loops to the right-hand side and the brain also turn right. In previous work, we identified the source and magnitude of the physical force necessary to make the brain twist and discovered that the heart looping direction mechanically determines the brain twisting direction.
In an abnormal chick embryo, the heart loops to the left-hand side and the brain also turn leftwards, forming a shape that resembles a question mark. In a normal embryo the opposite is true, i.e., the heart loops to the right-hand side and the brain also turn right. In previous work, we identified the source and magnitude of the physical force necessary to make the brain twist and discovered that the heart looping direction mechanically determines the brain twisting direction.
Mechanics and Geometry: From Twisted Embryonic Brains to Soft Robots
A resilient robotic bug
Dr. Chen and his team have developed a miniature robotic bug that has a flexible body, is easily maneuverable, and can be completely flattened without damaging its functionality.
Today’s robots can be intelligent and tough and are already helpful to humans in many ways. There remain a lot of scenarios, however, where traditional robots cannot function well. For example, robots often are made of rigid materials, such as alloys and plastics, which make them vulnerable to fracture and their motility becomes limited in confined spaces or on rough terrains.
This project was jointly led by Professor Zi Chen and Professor John X.J. Zhang from Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and Professor Jinhua Zhang from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.
Research article available at C. Jin, et al. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2020, doi.org/10.1002/aisy.201900162