The Mechanobiology
Research Center
Two disciplines share the same goal: to understand the mechanical and biological interactions in the microenvironment and predict their influence on cellular responses in physiological and pathological events.
A Research Hub
looking towards the future
The Mechanobiology Research Center, UNIBS was founded at the University of Brescia in 2019. It is the result of the collaboration between the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (DIMI – Prof. Alberto Salvadori) and the Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine (DMMT – Prof. Stefania Mitola).
Experiments and models
of cellular motility and remodeling
Many distinctive phenomena of physiological and pathological processes manifest a strong coupling between biochemical and mechanical responses. We aim at the dissection of how mechanical events influence cellular behavior to develop a digital twin of cells and tissues, to carry out virtual experiments and predict the cellular evolution.
Research, education
and business
Interdisciplinarity offers great opportunities but involves considerable complexity, due to the different scientific and cultural background. Our research center offers young researchers a path of intellectual integration and a fertile ground to build scientific projects. Visionary companies will bring innovation and entrepreneurship-oriented skills.
Cellular models and behavior
Mechanics and biology meet in the Center with the aim of understanding, interpreting, and predicting. Through experiments, models, and simulations we will study fundamental biological processes, such as cell duplication and differentiation, mechano-transduction in response to external stimuli.
In the tissues the cells are always subjected to geometric constraints which induce an intracellular stress affecting their functions. These events drive physiological processes including cell duplication, embryogenesis and tissue vascularization. These cellular stresses, of course, increase in pathological conditions such as obesity, fibrosis, or tumors.
Our Projects
The Mechanobiology of Bacterial Biofilms
PIs - A. Salvadori, L. Grezzi In collaboration with: G. Martello, Copan, Brescia, Italy S. Paghera, Copan, Brescia, Italy Bacterial biofilms are community of microorganisms which adhere [...]
Dealii-X: an Exascale Framework for Digital Twins of the Human Body
PI - A. Salvadori The Mechanobiology Research Center at the University of Brescia gladly announces to have received a EU funding for the Horizon-EuroHPC project “dealii-X: an [...]
The Mechanobiology of actin-based motility
PIs - A. Salvadori, C. Bonanno, M. Serpelloni In collaboration with: R. McMeeking, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA M. Guo, R. Kamm, “The mechanobiology lab”, MIT, Boston, [...]
All publications
All Events
Mechano-X Workshop, Tsinghua University, 2026
January 4–7, 2026 – A. Salvadori was an invited speaker [...]
“Digital Twins of the Human Body” research school, SISSA, 2025
Trieste, Italy, December 10–12, 2025 – Alberto Salvadori and Mattia [...]
XI Internantional Conference on Computational Bioengineering, Rome, 2025
Rome, September 10–13, 2025 – A. Salvadori presented “A rearrangement [...]
Partnership
