Individual PhD Project Information:
Host institution: Politecnico di Torino (POLITO), Italy.
Supervisory team: Prof Cristina Bignardi (PhD supervisor, POLITO), Prof. Silvia Budday (PhD co-supervisor, FAU), Dr Alessandra Aldieri (PhD co-cupervisor, POLITO), Dr Antoine Perrier (secondment host, TwinSight).
Enrolment in Doctoral School: Enrolled in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (POLITO, Bioengineering and Medical-Surgical Sciences PhD program) and at the Department of Mechanical Engineering (FAU).
PhD project description:
This PhD project will focus on developing patient-specific image-based virtual twins of the spine, including detailed finite element models of the ageing intervertebral disc (IVD) informed by dedicated mechanical tests and clinical images. The PhD overall objective will be the development of personalized image-based finite element models of spine segments, with heterogeneous mechanical properties for both the vertebrae and intervertebral discs, together with their validation against experimental data. Specifically, the candidate will work on the construction of FE models of multi-vertebrae human spine segments starting from medical images such as MRI and CT. The candidate will also use experimental data (e.g. micro/nano indentation on IVD portions, flexo-compression tests on multi-vertebrae specimens, histological analyses) on healthy and degenerated IVD specimens and on multi-vertebrae human spine segments. The possibility to identify associations between MRI-based markers and mechanical properties of the IVD will also be investigated.
A successful project will result in novel image-based patient-specific finite element models of the spine, mathematical relationships linking IVD information from clinical images (e.g. MRI) to its mechanical properties, and a curated dataset of biomechanical properties of spine segments from clinical imaging (e.g. CT, MRI) and mechanical tests.
Planned secondments:
- FAU: Aims to allow the DC to integrate methodologies for finite element modelling of human soft tissues as well as to benefit from the expertise of Prof Silvia Budday in computational soft tissue biomechanics.
- TwinSight: Opportunity for the DC to gain knowledge on the integration of in silico technologies in an industry setting.