ETH Zurich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university. Current enrolment is over 24,000 students (4'400 doctoral candidates). The ETH Zurich is one of the top 10 universities globally, and in the top 5 for technical sciences. More than 20 Nobel laureates have studied at the ETH Zurich or received the prize for their work at the ETH Zurich. The ETH Zurich promotes innovation and technology transfer, with over 80 new patent applications per annum, and over 200 spin-outs since 1996. The Institute for Biomechanics is a multidisciplinary research unit dedicated to the biomechanical investigation of the human body. The six professorships, totalling over one hundred employees and students, investigate the mechanics and material properties of the musculoskeletal system, its movement control and repair capacity. We work from a macroscopic (body/organ) scale to a microscopic (cell) scale.

Role in Metastra

Our group has over twenty years’ experience in experimental and computational orthopaedic biomechanics research, with a strong focus on soft tissue biomechanics and the function of the intervertebral disc. Our contribution to the METASTRA project is predominantly in WP3, where we will contribute to the creation and validation of novel VPH models for the prediction of spinal fracture risk. To accomplish this, we will improve and integrate our existing computational models of the intervertebral disc to allow a subject-specific application of appropriate biomechanical boundary conditions to vertebrae affected by metastases.

Team members

Prof. Stephen Ferguson

Email

Florian Rieger

Email