Professor Enrico Dall'Ara

PhD

Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health

Professor of Musculoskeletal Biomechanics

Dr Enrico Dall'Ara
Dr Enrico Dall'Ara
Profile picture of Dr Enrico Dall'Ara
e.dallara@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6175

Full contact details

Professor Enrico Dall'Ara
Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health
C+31, Pam Liversidge Building; DU19
The Medical School
Beech Hill Road
Sheffield
S10 2RX
Profile

I have been Full Professor of Musculoskeletal Biomechanics since 2024.

I hold a PhD from the Vienna University of Biomechanics and a Master in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna.

I am the Director of the Skelet.Al laboratories, the Research Director of the Insigneo Computational Modelling in Medicine research theme, and the Deputy Head of the Integrative MusculoSkeletal Biomechanics (IMSB) Research group.

I am the President of the European Society of Biomechanics 

I co-lead the Non-Clinical task force of the Avicenna Alliance.

Research interests

My research interests are related to better understanding the properties of musculoskeletal tissues across the space and time scales, by using imaging, experimental and computational methods.  In particular, the main goal of my research is to develop and validate subject-specific computational models for the prediction of bone strength, bone remodelling and risk of fracture in healthy subjects and in patients with musculoskeletal diseases, applied to both preclinical and clinical studies.

Research projects:

  • Validation of Finite Element models for bone at different dimensional levels
  • Development and validation of multiscale models for predicting bone remodelling over time
  • Preclinical assessment of osteoarthritis with longitudinal microCT
  • Development of Finite Element models to study the outcomes of spine fixation
  • Prediction of fracture risk for patients with vertebral metastases with QCT based computational models
  • Investigation of the effect of bone metastatic lesions on bone strength
  • Investigation of the mechanical properties of subchondral bone from OA patients
  • Optimisation of Digital Volume Correlation techniques for measuring deformation in heterogeneous biomaterials
Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

Reports

  • Carusi A (2015) In silico Clinical Trials: How Computer Simulations Will Transform the Biomedical Industry. An International Roadmap for an Industry-Driven Initiative. RIS download Bibtex download

Software / Code

Datasets

Other

Preprints

Research group

PostDocs

PhD Students

  • Ms Silvia Dirstaru (PhD student, 1st sup) 
  • Ms Jingzhi Zhang (PhD student, 1st sup)
  • Ms Saira Frage-O'Reilly (PhD student, 1st sup.)
  • Mr Robert Roger (PhD student, 1st sup.)
  • Ms Stamatina Moraiti (PhD student, 2nd sup.)
  • Ms Fiona Gibson (PhD student, 2nd sup.)
  • Mr Zhicheng Lin (PhD student, 2nd sup.)
  • Mr Keir Robson (PhD student, 2nd sup.)
  • Mr Ryan Cai (PhD student, 2nd sup.)

Research Technicians

Grants
  • 2024-2029; Dall’Ara E (PI): “Virtual Mouse and Human Twins for optimising Treatments for Osteoporosis (VHMTs-OP)”;  EPSRC (EU Guarantee Fund after being Selected for ERC Consolidator grant); ~£1.74M
  • 2023-2028; Dall’Ara E (UoS PI, WP leader), Lacroix D, et al. [Coordinator UniBo]: “METASTRA: Computer-aided effective fracture risk stratification of patients with vertebral metastases for personalised treatment through  robust computational models validated in clinical settings”;  EU HorizonEurope; ~6M euro [~£773k to Sheffield]
  • 2022-2027; van Lenthe H, Ruffoni D, Dall’Ara E, Stok K; “Understanding joint health: biomechanical and mechanobiological characterization of the bone-cartilage interface (UNITE)”; FNRS and FWO (Belgium, EOS excellence of Science scheme); ~€2000k [€94.5k to Sheffield] 
  • 2022-2023; Palanca M, Dall’Ara E, Cristofolini L; 2022-2023, “Effect of the IVD conditions on the risk of vertebral fracture in metastatic patients”; AO Spine Knowledge Forum Associate Research Award, €24k
  • 2020-2024; Farage-O’Reilly S, Dall’Ara E; “Multi-scale models for the prediction of bone remodelling due to musculoskeletal interventions”: PhD studentships EPSRC; ~£70k
  • 2020-2024; Inksson B (PI), Pinna C, Dall'Ara E, Fairclough JPA, Moebus G, Hounslow MJ, Cumming D, Reeves-McLaren N; “An X-ray Micro-Computed Tomography Facility with in-situ/in operando testing”: EPSRC ; £1412k
  • 2019-2026; Narracott AJ (PI), Fenner JW, Gunn JP, Clayton RH, Mazza C, Reilly G, Lawford PV, Wild JM, Hose DR, Marzo A, Villa-Uriol MC, Li X, Guo L, Dall'Ara E, Bhattacharya P, Walker DC, Watton P; “Centre for New Methods in Computational Diagnostics and Personalised Therapy (SANO)”: Horizon2020; €2897k
  • 2019-2021; Dall’Ara E (PI), Palanca M; “Comprehensive experimental and computational mechanical characterization of metastatic vertebrae (METASPINE)”: Horizon2020, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship; €213k
  • 2019-2021; Mazza’ C (PI), Dall’Ara E, Li X, Battacharia P, Kadirkamanathan V, McCloskey E; “Frontier Engineering: Progression Grant in Modelling complex and partially identified engineering problems. Application to the musculoskeletal system (MULTISIM2)”: Progression Grant EPSRC; £758k
  • 2019-2020; Dall’Ara E (PI); “Equipment for Mouse gait lab”: EPSRC ECR Capital Enhancement Programme 2018
  • 2018-2022; Reilly G (PI), Mazza’ C, Lacroix D, Claeyssen F, Guo L, Dall’Ara E; “SPINe: Numerical and Experimental Repair strategies”: Horizon2020 European program, Initial Training Network; £476k
  • 2017-2020; Dall’Ara E (PI), Bellantuono I, Viceconti M; “In silico approaches for preclinical assessment of bone changes in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis studies”: National Centre for replacement, refinement and reduction of animal use in research; £353k
  • 2017-2019; Bellantuono I (PI), Dall’Ara E; “Targeting mechanisms of ageing to maintain musculoskeletal health”: Biological and Biotechnological Sciences Research Council; £261k
  • 2017-2019; Dall’Ara E (PI); “Novel Assessment of the Osteoarthritic Hip Subchondral Bone: a Combined Experimental and Computational Investigation”: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; £101k
  • 2015-2016; Dall’Ara E (PI); “Multiscale characterization of osteoarthritic subchondral bone: combination of microCT, elastic registration and microindentation”: Royal Society research grant; £15k
  • 2016-2019; Dall’Ara E (PI), Hose R, Lawford P; “Assessment of bone growth in preclinical studies with Kalman filtering”: EPSRC PhD scholarship; £65k
  • 2015-2018; Dall’Ara E (PI), Viceconti M; “Prediction of the risk of vertebral fracture in patients with metastatic lesions as a tool for more effective patients’ management”: Sheffield Hospitals Charity; £65k
  • 2013-2015; Dall’Ara E (Fellow), Viceconti M; “Methodologically and Accurate modelling of bone”: FP7, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship; €222k
Teaching interests

I teach in the Computational Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System (MEC457, BIE6433).

I give invited lectures in different modules in engineering.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Director of the SkeletAl laboratory since 2020
  • Research Director Insigneo "Computational Modelling in Medicine" research theme since 2021
  • Head of the Integrative Musculoskeletal Biomechanics (IMSB) group 2022-2024
  • Member of Mellanby Centre for Musculoskeletal Research Executive Committee since 2021
  • President of the European Society of Biomechanics since 2024
  • Council member for the European Society of Biomechanics since 2018
  • President of the UK chapter of the Virtual Physiological Human Institute 2018-2024
  • Deputy chair of the Working Group 3 of the Bone Metastases Group of the National Cancer Research Institute in 2023
  • Editorial Board member of the Journal of Mechanical Behaviour of Biomedical Materials since 2019
  • Associate Editor for Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Biomechanics) since 2022
  • Member of the ESB since 2008, BRS since 2014, ECTS since 2015 and ORS since 2017
  • Reviewer for national and international funders
  • Reviewer for the major journals in the field of biomechanics and bone research