Flexure-Based Device Enables Precise Quantitative Monitoring of Muscle Performance

Tissue engineering provides an avenue for improving our understanding of the contractile mechanisms of muscle. 3D engineered muscle models have been developed that mimic the structure and functionality of native muscle. These models have the potential to be used in a wide variety of clinical applications such as neuromuscular disease modeling and drug therapy testing. The contractile mechanisms of engineered muscle are often quantified by constraining the muscle on an elastomeric scaffold and measuring the scaffold’s deformation; however, structural imperfections in the scaffold can negatively impact the accuracy of the recorded contractile data. This paper proposes using a flexure-based device that enables decoding of muscle physiological signals – such as contraction force, contraction time, and relaxation time – in a more precise, reproducible, and automated manner.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Lynch, Naomi L.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Raman, Ritu

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151913

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/151913