The Cell Systems and Mechanobiology Lab specialises in developing anatomically accurate, physiology-informed computational models of living cells and organs to uncover key biological mechanisms in health and disease. Our primary focus is cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Australia and globally. Through innovative modelling and AI-driven approaches, we aim to deepen understanding of heart and vascular function. Current projects include investigating cardiac hypertrophy (how mechanical, metabolic, and calcium signals regulate heart growth) and studying the ageing heart through a collaborative cross-institutional program creating a molecular atlas of cardiac ageing. Additionally, our vascular research explores red blood cell and vessel interactions, including developing microfluidic vasculature-on-chip systems with CSL to advance drug screening and digital twin technologies.
Capabilities
- Processes involving calcium, metabolic pathways and mechanics in biology encoded in trainable digital-twin models.
- Micro-tissue system and unique AI-image analysis capabilities for drug screening studies.
- Applications in cardiovascular disease and cancer
Impact
- Contributed to uncovering the molecular changes in healthy cardiac ageing, with implications for increased risk for heart disease in humans.
- Predicted the contribution of an ion-channel to arrhythmia in heart disease that was confirmed experimentally.
- Uncovered biophysical determinants of red blood cell transport through narrow capillaries using predictive digital-twins and microfluidics.
More information
Program Leader
A/Prof Vijay Rajagopal
vijay.rajagopal@unimelb.edu.au
Cell Systems and Mechanobiology Lab
Case Studies
- Ageing heart
- Growing heart: Digital twin used to reveal the contributions of calcium signalling to arrythmia
- Squeezing blood cells: Red blood cell shape is more important than its stiffness to how small a capillary it can go through
- When cells join: The molecular cross-talk between mechanical forces and biochemical signals determines how cells join to form tissues
- What is Digital Health Technology and Simulation