News
Malobogo Ngoepe very recently joined BMBL as postdoctoral researcher. Malebogo obtained PhD from the University of Oxford with research investigating, through computational modelling, the formation of thrombus in cerebral aneurysms. At BMBL, Malebogo will apply her expertise in a project on biomaterial and cell therapies for myocardial infarction while also continuing her research in thrombosis formation with the University of Oxford and the University College London. We are excited about having Malebogo with us.
In the next months, the Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Lab will move to the Division of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Human Biology of UCT. This change is connected with Tom Franz having been offered the position of Head of the Division of Biomedical Engineering. While BMBL will move to new offices and labs, the current research trusts and collaborations of BMBL will not be affected by the move. Biomaterial and cell injection therapies for myocardial infarction remain the primary research focus for which substantial grant applications are in process. Follow BMBL's move and get updates on new contact details and location on this web page.
The paper "Studying the influence of hydrogel injections into the infarcted left ventricle using the element-free Galerkin method" was published in the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering [full-text]. The paper reports on work with collaborators to develop a strain invariant-based stored energy function that accounts for the passive mechanical behaviour of the myocardium. An additive homogenization approach was introduced for the incorporation of biomaterial injections in the infarct region. The numerical framework was implemented in a bespoke code based on the element-free Galerkin method.
The Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Lab wishes all members, alumni, collaborators and friends a pleasant holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year. We are looking forward to continuing our research with you in 2014!