The development of new medicines and treatments has had a huge impact on humankind over the last hundred years. The Covid crisis is a good example, as it gave rise to technological breakthroughs within diagnostics, monitoring, treatment and vaccine development. All in record time.

Several major technological advances in human biology are waiting in the wings, and one of the topics that has attracted considerable international attention in recent years is the intersection between mechanics and cell biology.

"There’s clear and incontrovertible evidence that every biological cell in our body is affected not just by the chemistry around it, but also by the surrounding mechanics. For example, if I push it and prod it, or restrict its ability to move around, then I can use that to turn on and off gene programmes in the cell, just as I can with chemical substances," says Jens Vinge Nygaard, associate professor at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering.

He has just been named as one of seven new Distinguished Senior Innovators (DSI) at Aarhus University as part of an initiative to promote research-based innovation and entrepreneurship at the university and to strengthen innovation culture on general.

And that is important, if you ask the associate professor; he believes that silo mentality is still engrained in Danish research, and that true innovation requires more than just deep academic environments.

"It’s true that innovation does arise in academic environments with deep-rooted understanding of a single area. But innovation also stems from new combinations and the ability to combine disciplines. Interdisciplinarity is important in fostering innovation, but precisely the differences between different fields mean that they’re traditionally compartmentalised. I think we need to be able to look beyond this compartmentalisation and break it," he says.

Mouse with an ear on its back

During his career, Jens Vinge Nygaard has experienced a divided academic culture that he has had to break down within his own research field. Jens Vinge Nygaard originally studied mechanical engineering and wrote his PhD on foam materials in wind turbine blades and district heating pipes at Aalborg University from 1999 to 2002.

Around that time, an image of a mouse with a human ear on its back went viral on internet forums and in everyone’s email inboxes. The so-called Vacanti mouse was part of mechanobiological research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Researchers had successfully grown an ear-like structure by implanting synthetic biodegradable polymers embedded with bovine-derived cartilage cells under the skin of the mouse. The research was ground-breaking within the field of tissue engineering and it became crucial to Jens Vinge’s career:

“I was very inspired by the research at MIT, and when a postdoc position centred on developing a special kind of foam for stem cell research opened up at iNANO, well, I just had to go for it. I was an assistant professor at Aalborg University at the time, so I jumped one rung down on the research career ladder and took it from there. Coming from a completely different environment, I didn’t even know what a biological cell was at that time, but that didn’t matter to me,” he says.

Challenge to get funding for unconventional ideas

While the interest was there and international research in mechanobiology was growing, it was difficult to convince the established Danish funding community that there was more to understanding how cells behave than chemistry and biology.

"A fundamental problem with the funding structure of many foundations is that the board deciding which research projects to fund is often not an interdisciplinary group. It’s not good if the only members of a funding board within medicine are doctors, because we’ll be missing out on other academic aspects. It may seem counter-intuitive that someone with a background in mechanical engineering is working in cell research: it’s not a common combination. But that mindset is a bit like only looking at wind turbine technology through an engineering lens and forgetting electronics, software and a whole host of other disciplines. We won’t get far if we do that. It’s all about establishing interdisciplinarity,” he says.

From 2000 to 2020, mechanobiology moved from being a complete unknown, to being a nice idea, to being a pivotal element in the treatment of many diseases and for the individual patient. Stem cell technology is just one example of a mechanobiological breakthrough.

Jens Vinge is currently leading several major research projects within mechanobiology. The projects are supported by the Villum Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Innovation Fund Denmark. In general, his research centres on creating computer models that explain what happens to a biological cell when it is subjected to mechanical impacts.

"It's hard to figure out how a cell responds if you press it. It requires a lot of calculations, and luckily we have computers to help us. As part of my research, I develop computer models of biological cells to explain the mechanisms of a cell when it’s exposed to a mechanical impact. For example, these mechanisms can change the chemistry of the cell. All this helps us gain new perspectives on how biology behaves and it gives us deeper insight into diseases," he says.

He continues: "Mechanobiology opens up for a world of possibilities. Like the chance to develop new classes of medicines or improve biotechnological production. Digital models will become tools we can use to improve treatment regimes. But there’s still a lot of research to be done before we can realise the full potential of the insights we now have in this area."

Across the university

As a DSI, Jens Vinge Nygaard will be an ambassador for academic innovation and entrepreneurship and spearhead efforts at the Faculty of Technical Sciences. He will be able to translate his own research into new solutions and have good opportunity to inspire others. He will also act as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in the many different academic environments at Tech.

Each DSI will have access to external expertise and sparring on innovation, entrepreneurship and business development, as well dedicated support and workshops on applying for external funding.

"There's a wide range of ideas at Tech, and many of them, but not all these ideas come at the right time. Some have the potential to become something great, others don't. It's about making the best out of the opportunities we have. And that's what's so great about the DSIs: we operate across the university with a desire to bring out the best in every good idea. I can't wait to get started," he says.

Jens Vinge Nygaard is an associate professor at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Aarhus University and he is the head of the Biomechanics and Mechanobiology research group.

Contact

Associate Professor Jens Vinge Nygaard
Aarhus University, Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering
Mail: jvn@bce.au.dk
Tel.: +4541893170