New Web Site Created By UMass Amherst Researchers Could Transform Biological Research Using Engineering

March 28, 2008

Contact:

Ian Grosse 413/545-1350

AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have received a four-year, $982,633 grant from the National Science Foundation to support a new Web site called Biomesh, which teaches biologists to study the behavior of biomechanical systems using the same computer modeling technique employed by engineers designing aircraft or bridges.

Known as finite element analysis, this technique has revolutionized engineering, and has the potential to transform how biologists approach research in areas ranging from functional morphology and developmental biology to the study of evolution and cellular mechanics.

Biomesh will support this learning experience by developing a shared digital resource collection of finite element models of biological systems, including 120 of the most common animals studied by biologists, such as sunfish, frogs and rats. You can visit Biomesh at www.biomesh.org.

“This site will be the easiest way for biologists to learn how to do finite element modeling,” says biologist Elizabeth Dumont. “The alternative is to pick up a textbook on finite element modeling and engineering mechanics. But, as a biologist who tried that route, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s much easier to have a readable source of information to ease that transition.”

Finite element analysis is a computer-based technique for predicting the physical behavior of engineered products based on fundamental principles of mechanics. It has enabled engineers to digitally design and optimize everything from automobiles and trains to buildings.

“Finite element analysis is used in situations where experiments are not quick, easy, nor feasible,” says Ian Grosse of the mechanical and industrial engineering department. “That’s why it is used heavily in industry, where it saves time, money and material by minimizing the number of physical prototypes needed to validate a product design, sometimes even eliminating the use of physical prototypes entirely.”

Now biologists are beginning to use finite element modeling to understand the biomechanical behavior of biological organs, tissues and even cells in both living and extinct organisms. Dumont, for example, is studying bats to find out how the physics involved in feeding has affected the evolution of mammal skulls. “The twist with biological systems is that we’re really trying to reverse-engineer what evolution has already come up with,” says Dumont.

“How animals respond to the forces exerted on them is largely governed by the same physics that govern how products respond,” says Grosse. “A bat skull is a structure. When you put a force on it, it deforms based on the same underlying physics that govern how a safety helmet deforms during a crash. Newton’s Laws are still Newton’s Laws. They work in the biological world as well as the mechanical world.”

Dumont’s moment of enlightenment about finite element modeling came about seven years ago before she came to UMass Amherst, while studying bat skulls and marveling at how tiny they were. The usual method for measuring forces generated during feeding is to surgically attach a strain gauge to the skull.

“But I’m looking at this little thing and thinking it’s so small that I’m never going to get a strain gauge on it,” recalls Dumont. “So I ended up going on the Internet looking for answers to this issue, and saw a brightly colored picture of a computer model depicting stresses in a bridge. I knew that was what I needed.”

When she came to UMass Amherst, one of the first things Dumont did was to take a bat skull with her and go from door to door in the mechanical and industrial engineering department looking for someone willing to teach her finite element modeling. “When I finally got to Ian, he didn’t chuckle,” she says. “Instead, he said that modeling the skull was possible. That’s how our collaboration was formed about five years ago.”

Now Dumont and Grosse are creating Biomesh to knock out the middleman – that being Grosse or any other mechanical engineer – and empower biologists to do finite modeling on their own.

In addition to the collection of models, the site will also include an integrated set of Web-enabled tools for sharing finite element models, modeling metadata, mechanical property values of biological materials, interactive software tools for visualizing finite element models and results, utilities supporting the development of biological finite element models and a threaded discussion.

Grosse likes to joke about their new site, calling it the Wikipedia for biologists to learn about finite element modeling.

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