Dr.-Ing. Julius Zimmermann

Raum Ex 138

Tel.: +49 (0) 381 498-7063 
Fax: +49 (0) 381 498-7081

E-Mail: julius.zimmermann(at)uni-rostock.de

Research Interests
  • electromagnetic stimulation for tissue engineering and regeneration, especially cartilaginious tissue
  • Numerical simulation of electromagnetic fields
  • multiphysics and multiscale approaches
  • automated modeling using FEniCS
  • uncertainty quantification using dielectric spectroscopy data
Research Projects Description

SFB 1270 ELAINE - Electrically Active Implants(project A02)

Articular hyaline cartilage is a relevant structure of the musculoskeletal system and is of great importance forjoint function. Cartilage lesions lead to osteoarthritis, which is a painful disease and decreases the quality of life strongly. Unfortunately, a proper treatment of weakened cartilage is challenging. Experimental studies have shown that mechanical as well as electrical stimulation may be suitable approaches to regenerate the cartilage tissue. In order to obtain a deep understanding of the underlying processes, modeling of the microstructure is necessary. So far, there exist models, which have been successfully employed to reproduce the effects of mechanical stimulation. Even though the electrical properties of cartilage have been sometimes considered in these approaches, a consistent description of external electrical stimulation is lacking. Hence, a first goal of the present project is to find an appropriate approach to investigate the influence of electrical stimulation on hyaline cartilage. Moreover, a focus will be on multi-scale approaches since processes on many scales from joint to cells are involved in the regeneration process of cartilage tissue. For that, parameters obtained on one scale have to be processed to serve as input parameters for another scale. This task will be tackled in collaboration with researchers working on project A01. The theoretical results will be compared to experimental results provided by researchers working on project C02. Altogether, an optimal stimulation scheme for cartilage regeneration shall be found.

Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Ursula van Rienen

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