Models and simulations can provide important knowledge for understanding mechanobiological processes. The development of predictive models has highlighted how fruitful the interaction with life sciences can be. The contribution that models and simulations can make to the medicine of the future will be discussed in a workshop entitled “Biomechanics and Mechanobiology in the present time” scheduled for Friday 25 February 2022 in the Aula magna of the rectorate of the University of Florence.

The initiative is organized by Paolo Maria Mariano and Alberto Salvadori, professors of Mechanics of Solids, respectively at the Universities of Florence and Brescia. During the meeting, the theme will be developed in relation to two cutting edge research branches:

Biomechanics – a branch of bioengineering, which analyzes the behavior and properties of physiological structures when subjected to static or dynamic stimuli – in which mathematical models are used to predict what could be the response of a living being to mechanical stress (for example the mechanical resistance of the fabrics);

Mechanobiology – an emerging field that combines biology and engineering and aims to deepen the knowledge of cellular functions with reference to the interaction in cells between physical and mechanical processes. Mechanical modeling and biology are already united, for example, in the analysis of the development of processes such as tumor metastasis.

Plenary lectures will be offered by Stefano Berretti (University of Florence), Marco Capitanio (University of Florence and LENS), Filippo Cavallo (University of Florence), Salvatore Federico (University of Calgary) Emanuela Jacchetti (Polytechnic of Milan), Maria Carmela Lombardo ( University of Palermo), Paolo Maria Mariano (University of Florence), Luigi Preziosi (Polytechnic of Turin and Accademia dei Lincei), Alberto Salvadori (University of Brescia), Marco Spadini (University of Florence), Christian Vergara (Polytechnic of Milan).
Institutional greetings will be welcomed by the Vice Rector of Research of the University of Brescia, Marina Pizzi, and Marco Pierini, Vice Rector for Technology Transfer of the University of Florence.

“The interaction between scholars belonging to the fields of engineering, physics, life sciences, new scenarios will open up to be explored with enormous potential for advanced research – explain the organizers -; the workshop aims to investigate these issues and establish new scientific collaborations “