DERI Seminar with Dr Stefaan Verbuggen

When: Thursday, October 19, 2023, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Where:

Speaker: Dr Stefaan Verbuggen, Lecturer in Medical Technology, SEMS

Zoom link: https://qmul-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81148100921

Title:  How do our bone cells sense exercise?

Abstract: Dr Verbruggen studies bone mechanobiology, a multi-disciplinary field, focussed on how the cells and tissues in our body respond to physical forces, through altered signalling cascades or adaptations in the material properties of extracellular matrix. Dr Verbruggen’s research has focussed on a number of diseases in which the mechanobiology of osteocytes, the most abundant bone cell, plays a key role. These include computational models of how osteocytes sense exercise during osteoporosis and how a baby’s kick in the womb is key to normal joint development. This exciting field of research is expanding rapidly to explore ever more complex diseases, with Dr Verbruggen’s group working to build representative organ-on-a-chip models of metastatic breast and prostate cancer,  and identifying new therapeutic targets for associated bone lesions.

Bio: Dr Stefaan Verbruggen is a Lecturer in Medical Technology at Queen Mary University of London, a DERI Academic Fellow, and a Principal Investigator at the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine, at the University of Sheffield. Dr Verbruggen’s research focuses on the mechanobiology of musculoskeletal and metastatic cancer cells. Prior to his appointment, Dr Verbruggen conducted his PhD research in bone cell mechanobiology the Biomechanics Research Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway, followed by postdoctoral research in how fetal movements affect joint development in the Developmental Biomechanics Lab at Imperial College London. Most recently, Stefaan completed a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Columbia University in New York.