BM³ Instrumentation Facility overview

The Biomechanics, Biomaterials and Biomedicine Instrumentation Facility (BM³) is the newest addition to the College of Engineering core research facilities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Located in Room 126A of the Walter Scott Engineering Center (bay area) the facility occupies approximately 1000 sq.ft of combined laboratory space. The BM³ opened in the summer of 2010 with the mission of providing access to critical research infrastructure to faculty and their collaborators. Please explore our website where you will find more details about each of the instruments currently available in our facility, and how to begin incorporating them in your research.

We hope to see you soon.

Mission statement

Our mission is to support interdisciplinary research in the areas embracing biomechanics, biomaterials and biomedicine (the “BM³”) engineering. The BM³will provide engineering faculty and their collaborators with access to the critical research infrastructure that typically lies beyond the reach of an individual or small team of faculty in targeted interdisciplinary areas. The BM³ is intended to support the advancement of all College of Engineering faculty having interests in bio-engineering research, and will not be constrained to any particular department or group. We are making every effort to make these techniques available and affordable to anyone interested.

The BM³ long term goal is to serve as a focal point for collaboration between engineering faculty and researchers in applied fields, such as human and veterinary medicine, dentistry, and pharmaceutics, and will seek to catalyze collaborative opportunities through networking activities. We expect to cooperate with a wide variety of customers from the academic and industrial background and actively participate in developing new research ideas.

Bone formation stimulated with mechanical loading

BOSE Electroforce 3200 instrument was used to perform dynamic cyclic compression tests on polyurethane open cell foam scaffolds seeded with fully differentiated osteoblastic cells, MLO-A5 line. The results indicate mineralisation (calcium content) and production of biomarkers (type I collagen, osteopontin and osteocalcin) characteristic for bone extracellular matrix (ECM) are highly sensitive towards mechanical stimulation. The compression loading was preformed in situ using commercially available ‘Orthopaedic BioDynamic™ Chamber’ from Bose Electroforce systems group. Full article is available from the publisher website (doi:10.1016/j.bone.2008.12.027).

Combinatorial cell culture systems on patterned surfaces

Protein microarraying combined with photoresist lithography enabled printing of extracellular matrix (ECM) protein arrays while precisely controlling “on-the-spot” cell-cell interactions. Hepatic cells (HepG2) attached on various diameter spots of collagens I, II, and IV and laminin and were characterized with fluorescence microscopy and AFM. Laser Scanning Cytometer was used to precisely estimate cellular populations attached to protein domains with different sizes. 3T3 fibroblasts subsequently seeded on non-patterned surfaces were used to evaluate coculture conditions. Read the full article here.

FLEXCELL FX-50000 TENSION SYSTEM

1. Jeong Soon Lee, Jung Yul Lim. BMP4-induced C3H10T1/2 commitment into adipocyte is inhibited by stretching. 57th Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS), #2184, January 13-16, 2011, Long Beach, CA, USA.
2. Jeong Soon Lee, Jung Yul Lim. Tensile stretch inhibits BMP4 mediated mesenchymal stem cell adipogenesis. 2010 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), #OP-7-3-9E, October 6-9, 2010, Austin, TX, USA.

BOSE ELECTROFORCE

1. C. Villanueva, S.G.M. Hossain, C. Nelson, 2011, "Silicone Catheters May be Superior to Latex Catheters in the Difficult Urethral Catheterization After Urethral Dilation", Journal of Endourology (under review).
2. S. G. M. Hossain, C. A. Nelson, T. Boulet, M. Arnoult, L. Zhang, A. Holmberg, J. Hein, N. Kleinschmit, A. Sogbesan, 2010, "Material Modeling and Development of a Realistic Dummy Head for Testing Blast Induced Traumatic Brain Injury", IV European Conference on Computational Mechanics-ECCM 2010, Paris.
3. S.G.M. Hossain, Mickael Arnoult, Thomas Boulet, Charles Landais, Jonathan Hein and Carl Nelson, 2010, "Material Analysis for the Development of a Surrogate Headform to be Tested Under Blast-Induced Shock Loading", Abstracts, Society of Engineering Science 47th Annual Technical Meeting, Ames, IA
4. Masters Thesis of S.G.M. Hossain, 2010, "Material Modeling and Analysis to Develop a Realistic Blast Head-form", Adviser: Dr. Carl A. Nelson, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

SEM QUANTA FEG

1. M. Skotak, J. Ragusa, D. Gonzalez and A. Subramanian, "Improved cellular infiltration into nanofibrous electrospun cross-linked gelatin scaffolds templated with micrometer-sized polyethylene glycol fibers", Biomed. Mater. 6, 055012 (2011)
2. Y. Yuan, Y. Bi, and J. Huang, "Achieving high efficiency laminated polymer solar cell with interfacial modified metallic electrode and pressure induced crystallization", Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 063306 (2011)

HYSITRON NANOINDENTER

1. P. Yuya, E. Amborn, M. Beatty, and J. Turner. "Evaluating anisotropic properties in the porcine temporomandibular joint disc using nanoindentation". Annals of biomedical engineering, 38(7):2428-2437, 2010.
2. Elham Forouzesh, Ashwani Goel, Sally S Mackenzei, Joseph A Turner. "In vivo extraction of plant cell turgor pressure using nanoindentation", Society of Engineering Science - 47th Annual Technical meeting, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, October 3-6, 2010.
3. Celine Hayot, Elham Forouzesh, Zoya Avramova, Joseph Turner. "Viscoelastic properties of the cell wall of Arabidopsis Thaliana by dynamic nanoindentation". EPSCOR 2010 Nebraska Research and Innovation
4. Celine Hayot, Susan Enders, Joseph Turner. "Presentation title: Mechanical properties of highly elastic insect cuticle". ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
5. Severine Vennin. "Fracture of Bone Using Microindentation", MS, Engineering Mechanics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, August, 2010.
6. Y. Kim, F. Aragao, D. Allen, and D. Little. "Damage modeling of bituminous mixtures considering mixture microstructure, viscoelasticity, and cohesive zone fracture." Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 37(8):1125-136, 2010.
7. Aragao, F.T.S. Kim, Y-R. "Micromechanical Model for Heterogeneous Asphalt Concrete Mixtures Subjected to Fracture Failure." J. Materials Civil Eng. p 30, 2011.
8. Aragao, F.T.S., Kim Y.R. "Modeling Fracture and Failure of Heterogeneous and Inelastic Asphaltic Materials Using the Cohesive Zone Concept and the Finite Element Method." GeoFlorida 2010: Advances in Analysis, Modeling & Design.
9. Arago, F. T. S. and KIM, Y. R. "Modeling of Asphaltic Materials Subjected to Nonlinear Viscoelastic Fracture." Presented at annual meeting of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (Geo Florida 2010), West Palm Beach, FL, February 2010.

ARAMIS 3D STRAIN SYSTEM

1. Arago, F. T. S.; Kim, Y. R.; Karki, P; and Little, D. N. (2010). "Semi - Empirical, Analytical, and Computational Predictions of Dynamic Modulus of Asphalt Concrete Mixtures." Presented at the 89th meeting of the Transportation Research Board, TRB, Washington, D. C., January 2010.