Our bodies are like complex machines. And, like any machine, we have forces acting on us and components that wear down with use and age.
Machines have engineers, technicians, and other specialists to design, maintain, and repair them. When it comes to our bodies, we have a variety of health experts to help keep us in tip-top shape – but there’s also an engineering angle to understanding how best to keep our bodies healthy.
Lidan You’s interdisciplinary research focuses on musculoskeletal biomechanics, with a specific interest in understanding how mechanical loading – physical activity – affects bone health and progression of diseases such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, diabetes, cancer bone metastases.
“I studied fluid mechanics and, as I began my research, I started looking at blood rheology and how the fluid flow shear stress in the circulatory system will affect red blood cells,” she says. “An opportunity came up to look at the role interstitial fluid flow in the bone matrix in bone health regulation and that got me really interested.”
You joined the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering in 2024, building on her research and time at the University of Toronto. You was recently named a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology, an appointment which will further her research pioneering the development of advanced microtechnologies that will drive progress in understanding and treating bone disorders, promoting musculoskeletal health and overall wellbeing.
A key challenge in supporting patients with bone health conditions is ensuring they remain physically active for both their physical and mental well-being. However, many bone patients are elderly and, in their weakened state, they may risk injury while doing physical activity. You’s lab aims to evaluate the benefits of passive exercise or other forms of physical activity that might be safer for these patients while still helping their recovery.
“We're trying to mimic the real microenvironment for bone cells and understand how the cells respond to a different type of mechanical loading, and how that will regulate the bone cells cross talk with other cells such as cancer cells,” she says. “We are one of the very few groups in the world investigating this specific question. Building the right microenvironment model to study specific bone disease takes tremendous effort and the financial support from the CRC program is absolutely critical.”
The research could have broader applications beyond bone health. You is already considering national and international collaborations to examine brain, prostate, and lung cancers. She has also built existing collaborations focused on breast cancers.
“We developed this multilayer microfluid environment so that we can examine multiple types of cells,” she says. “We can put all the cells with physiological relevance on the chip so they can actually cross talk in real time, and we can understand how the cells respond. We can investigate each cell population, understand their role, and learn how they contribute to the disease progression so we can develop a meaningful therapeutic target.”
You is one of 16 Canada Research Chairs announced for Queen’s in Fall 2024, including three professors affiliated with Smith Engineering: Amir Fam, Bhavin Shastri, and Cao Thang Dinh.
