MRI: Acquisition of a Planar Biaxial Material Testing System for Enhancement of Research and Teaching at Bucknell University

这一重大研究仪器(MRI)奖支持收购一种最先进的平面双轴材料系统，该系统能够实现聚合物力学和生物组织力学的基础研究。该项目进行现实测试，将分子和公式条件与物理行为联系起来，可能使仿生结构的新设计能够模仿天然材料的显著特性，包括合成肌肉类似物、医疗植入物、对湿度敏感的纳米设备和可调的开放通道微流体。这一知识可以促进全球医学进步，特别是在神经肌肉和组织疾病的预防和治疗方面。该奖项将为宾夕法尼亚州中部多个机构的50多名教职员工和学生提供新的研究机会。这项研究将被整合到课程作业中，该项目将通过巴克内尔一年一度的工程夏令营和大学奖学金计划，鼓励学生追求工程和健康领域的职业，特别是女性和其他代表性不足的学生。该项目将促进宾夕法尼亚州中部的合作生物医学、机械和化学研究努力，旨在了解和改进先进的软材料。连接软材料的内部纳米结构--无论是生物衍生的还是合成的--可能使新的聚合物材料的综合设计能够有效地利用其内部结构的非常小的细节。这四个项目解决了复杂的应力状态如何引发在单轴条件下不存在的响应机制--与各种合成和天然聚合物相关的东西。将获得的平面双轴测试系统可以在一系列实验协议、尺寸和载荷条件下测试样品，使研究人员能够在从1牛顿到1千牛顿的载荷下研究各种软材料和/或纤维材料的多轴机械性能。这项研究将推动对生物材料中的微结构如何转化为体内功能的基本理解，重点是细胞外基质在骨骼肌力传递中的作用--使肌肉的计算模型和未来神经肌肉疾病的治疗方法的发展成为可能。这项测试将通过更好地了解聚合物材料如何模拟组织力学，为软纤维组织(如肌肉、韧带和软骨)的组织替代物的设计提供信息。这项研究还将支持承受多轴机械负载的软执行器的开发，以更好地设计复杂的机电系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a state-of-the-art planar biaxial materials system that enables fundamental research in polymer mechanics and the mechanics of biological tissues. This project conducts realistic testing that relates the molecular and formulaic conditions to physical behavior that may enable novel designs for biomimetic structures that emulate the remarkable properties of natural materials, including synthetic muscle analogs, medical implants, moisture-sensitive nanodevices and tunable open-channel microfluidics. This knowledge could catalyze global medical advances, particularly in the prevention and treatment of neuromuscular and tissue diseases. This award will provide new research opportunities for over fifty faculty, staff, and students at multiple institutions in central Pennsylvania. The research will be integrated into course work and the project will encourage students to pursue careers in engineering and health-- particularly females and other underrepresented students-- through Bucknell's annual Engineering Summer Camp and university scholarship programs. This project will energize collaborative biomedical, mechanical, and chemical research endeavors in central Pennsylvania aimed at understanding and improving advanced soft materials. Connecting the internal nanostructure of soft materials-- both biologically derived and synthetic--may enable comprehensive design of new polymeric materials that efficiently make use of very small details of their internal structure. These four projects address how complex stress states induce mechanisms of response not present under uniaxial conditions-- something relevant to a wide variety of synthetic and natural polymers. The planar biaxial test system that will be acquired is equipped to test samples under a range of experimental protocols, sizes, and load conditions and enables researchers to investigate the multi-axial mechanical properties of a wide range of soft and/or fibrous materials at loads from 1 newton to 1 kilonewton. This research will drive fundamental understanding of how microstructure in biological materials translates to in vivo function, with an emphasis on the role of the extracellular matrix in skeletal muscle force transmission--enabling the development of computational models of muscle and future treatment methods for neuromuscular diseases. The testing will inform the design of tissue replacements for soft, fibrous tissues such as muscle, ligament, and cartilage by gaining better insight into how polymeric materials can mimic tissue mechanics. This research will also support the development of soft actuators subject to multiaxial mechanical loads to better engineer complex electromechanical systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.