Professor Damien Lacroix

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Professor of Mechanobiology

Damien Lacroix
Profile picture of Damien Lacroix
d.lacroix@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7788

Full contact details

Professor Damien Lacroix
Department of Mechanical Engineering
F17
Pam Liversidge Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

Damien Lacroix is Professor of Mechanobiology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Applied Science (INSA Lyon, France) and a PhD in Biomechanics from Trinity College Dublin.

After a post-doc in 2001 in Toulouse (France) for Smith and Nephew at the Purpan Hospital, he was awarded a Marie-Curie TMR EU fellowship in 2002 and a Ramon y Cajal senior fellowship in 2004 at the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain).

In 2008 he was appointed Group Leader of Biomechanics and Mechanobiology at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (Spain). Damien joined the Department in 2012 when he took a Chair in Biomedical Engineering within the INSIGNEO research institute.

Research interests

Professor Lacroix's research covers bone mechanobiology (bone tissue engineering, bone distraction, fracture healing) and spine biomechanics (mechanobiology of disc degeneration, disc angiogenesis, disc implant analysis).

The focus of his research group is the study of the effect of mechanical stimuli on biological response. The group's objective is to make scientific advancements in simulations of in vitro and in vivo biomechanics and mechanobiology and in experimental in vitro mechanobiology.

The current focus of the group is mainly on the development of simulations in spine biomechanics, tissue engineering and cell mechanics. These numerical simulations based on the finite element method are complemented with in vitro tests using bioreactors and microfluid chambers.

Projects

  • Multiscale modelling of the musculoskeletal system
  • Development of a predictive computational platform for disc degenration
  • Simulation of a biological / biomaterials interactions in tissue engineering
  • Simulation of bone fracture healing
  • Modelling of cell mechanics
  • Study of cell adhesion
  • Microfluidic study of fluid shear stresses
  • Implant prothesis design
Publications

Books

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

Datasets

Presentations

Preprints

Grants
  • European Research Council Starting Grant, MECHANOBIO - 'Finite element simulations of mechanobiology in tissue engineering', 10/2011-09/2016. €1.49m
  • European Commission, FP7 ICT 269909, MySpine - 'Functional prognosis simulation of patient-specific spinal treatment for clinical use', 03/2011-02/2014. €0.68m.
  • ESPRC Frontier Engineering Award (EP/K03877X/1), M J Hounslow, D Lacroix, M Viceconti, S  A Billings, V Kadirkamanathan, A pavic, E McCloskey, T Skerry, 'Modelling Complex and Partially Identified Engineering Problems - Application to the Individualised Multi-scale Simulation of the Musculoskeletal System', 01.09.2013 to 31.08.2018 £4.86m
Teaching interests

Professor Lacroix supervises final year undergraduate and MSc projects.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Past-President of the European Society of Biomechanics
  • Council Member of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES)
  • Editorial Board member of Biomaterials, Journal of Biomechanics and Clinical Biomechanics
  • 2010 Jean Leray Award from the European Society of Biomaterials
  • 2006 City Award of Barcelona in Technology Research for the development of a new injectable porous material based on calcium phosphate
  • Recipient of European Research Council Starting Grant in 2011