Collagen Single Fibril Mechanochemistry

Student: Brendan Flynn
Department: Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Advisor: Jeffrey Ruberti

Abstract

Mechanical strain has been show to effect the enzymatic degradation of collagen. Single collagen fibrils are the fundamental units of connective tissue in mammals, and have yet to be probed mechanochemically. I am attaching individual collagen fibrils to a micromechanical testing system inside a microbioreactor, then adding enzyme and probing the effect of various loading regimes.