Facilities

Experimental facilities

Movement Analysis and Activity Monitoring Laboratory

This laboratory aims to investigate the biomechanics and motor control of human movement and various aspects of human-object interactions. The size of the laboratory and the configuration of the system allow for capture volumes (up to 6m x 4.5m).

The lab features a 10-camera motion capture system (Vicon), two force platforms (AMTI), pressure insoles (Tekscan), a wireless electromyographic system (Cometa) and an isokinetic dynamometer (Biodex).  

We also have wearable sensors that can quantify movement in the real world in supervised and unsupervised scenarios. The camera-based systems and the inertial measurement units can be used to capture the movement of any object, enabling a broad range of applications different from human movement.

For more details and access to the laboratory, contact Dr Jennifer Rowson and Prof Claire Brockett.

Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Laboratory

The Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Laboratory performs biomechanical and mechanobiological measurements on biological tissues and cells. The laboratory hosts a dedicated space for storage, preparation and mechanical testing of biological tissues, a large space for cell cultures and kits to study the effect of mechanical and biological stimuli on cells, a dark room for microscopy and AFM analyses and a small room for qPCR measurements.

The laboratory aims to provide a unique environment to characterize the biological tissue at different dimensional scales from the molecular up to the whole organ levels.

For more details and access to the laboratory, contact Professor Gwen Reilly.

Maintaining the tissue niche laboratory

The aim of the laboratory is to enable maintenance of cell, tissue and organ cultures of primary musculoskeletal tissues within physiologically relevant environments including physioxia and mechanical load. The laboratory is a dedicated cell and tissue culture suite with laminar flow cabinets, hypoxia glove box, and mechanical loading bioreactors to maintain physiological conditions. Located in close proximity to facilities for microscopy, molecular biology, histology and immunohistochemistry analysis.

For more details and access to the laboratory please contact Professor Christine Le Maitre

Skeletal Analysis Laboratories

The Skeletal Analysis Laboratories characterise skeletal tissues and other materials with imaging and histological analyses. The laboratory hosts different microscopes and two X-rays micro-computed tomography scanners for in vivo analyses on small rodents and ex vivo analyses on different materials. The laboratory offers a flexible approach to suit the user’s needs. The users can use the equipment and perform their own analysis, receive training or ask the team to perform the experiments on their behalf.

For more details and access to the laboratory,  contact Dr Enrico Dall’Ara.

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Computational facilities

The IMSB group has access to the Sheffield HPC Tier 3 Facility.

Moreover, the IMSB group has a number of dedicated software for biomechanical analyses:

• ThermoFisher Scientific Amira
• ANSYS
• Dassault Systemes Abaqus

Within different projects, the group has also developed several web services. 

CT2S

CT2S predicts femoral strength based on computed tomography images of the femur.

Bone DVC

BoneDVC, provides an assessment of strain field in bone specimens, given two images of the undeformed and deformed specimen.

MouseTibia

MouseTibia describes the densitometric and mechanical properties of the tibiae of mice, given a microCT images acquired in vivo or ex vivo.