As kids, I am sure many of us were encouraged to sing the old spiritual tune “Dem Dry Bones.” The song was not only supposed to be fun, it’s educational. Remember…
The toe bone’s connected to the heel bone,
The heel bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone… 

Bioengineering researchers must have taken the song to heart, because they want to know how all 206 adult human bones are connected, how they help us move; how they protect our organs, how they break, and thankfully, how they can be healed. The research studies being conducted, with the help of Abaqus FEA, are complex and extensive. They are also vitally important in helping to discover innovative treatments for ailing bones.

Harvard University

Researchers at the Harvard Medical School joined with engineers from Foster-Miller, Inc, to study the load bearing capacity of the spine subjected to vertebrae fractures caused by metastasis. Their study combines MRI results with Abaqus FEA to evaluate the fracture and failure processes caused by tumors in the spine. The goal is to leverage their research  to guide clinical decisions related to surgery and patient care.  You can also view a poster on their study at the SIMULIA academic web page. 

According to the Podiatry Channel website  The foot and ankle contain 26 bones, 33 joints; more than 100 muscles, tendons. I can see why bioengineers are intrigued by the challenge of understanding out how this complex system functions.  The paper from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University describes the highly detailed Abaqus FEA models that they created to gain a better understanding of how to protect our feet and ankles from injury.

 

A group of undergraduate engineering students at Cedarville University used Abaqus to model the push-out load between a hip prosthesis stem and bone during a senior design project. Their paper outlines how the analysis results, when used along with a device that maps out the geometry of the femoral intramedullary canal, could aid orthopedic surgeons in  prosthesis size selection during hip replacement surgery. 

  

 

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic are also using Abaqus to analyze feet. They are assessing the risk of foot ulcerations in patients with diabetic neuropathy. In their study, they analyzed how bone position effects plantar pressure distribution which be used to guide the design of therapeutic footwear. 

I continue to be amazed at how researchers and medical companies are using Abaqus to analyze every part of the human body and discover innovative treatments to improve our health care. 

Feel free to share your thoughts on Life Sciences with me. I plan to tackle other industry topics in coming posts.

Enjoy,

Tim