Mechanical Properties of Aging Soft Tissues

Dr Riaz Akhtar is a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at University of Liverpool. His research focuses on the micromechanical behavior of biological tissues, in particular relating mechanical changes with age and disease. Dr Akhtar has a Ph.D in the micromechanical behavior of bone and for a number of years has focused on using novel techniques to characterize soft tissues such as blood vessels and skin. He held a British Heart Foundation research fellowship which addressed clinically relevant cardiovascular problems such as age-related vascular stiffening using materials science tools and techniques.

Professor Brian Derby is a Professor of Materials Science at The University of Manchester. He has led a number of large research programs focused on the mechanical properties of aging tissues including a £1 million grant as part of the major, cross-council initiative supporting multi-disciplinary Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative. His work has pioneered new methods for accurately characterizing the mechanical properties of soft tissues with techniques such as scanning acoustic microscopy and nanoindentation. He is the editor of the Springer ‘Engineering Materials and Processes’ series.