Gwynne Hannay
  1. Current research activities

    2. I am currently evaluating the effect of mechanical strain and indirect electrical stimulation upon bone forming osteoblast cells in vitro. This will be achieved by using a novel device that will create an accurate measurable strain along with an exogenous pulsed electromagnetic field stimulant. A predetermined strain, strain rate and PEMF pulse waveform will be applied to elucidate the phenotype of a mechanically and electrically perturbed cell population. The ability to influence the phenotype of a cell is a very useful tool for a number of therapeutic applications such as decreased time for fracture healing, osseointegration of implanted biomaterials used within arthroplasty and seeding a cellular scaffolds for in vivo implantation.

  2. Keywords

    3. biomedical engineering, bone, osteoblast, mechanostimulation, electrostimulation

  3. End-user applications

    • Further experimental studies into electro-mechano cell stimulation
    • Fracture healing for normal, pathologic (osteoporotic, etc) patients
    • Prosthetic osseointegration for arthroplasty patients
    • Augmentation of cellular seeded scaffolds for in vivo use
  4. Key publications

    5. I. Bassett, C. A. (1989). "Fundamental and practical aspects of therapeutic uses of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs)." Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering 17(5): 451-529.
    II. Lohmann, C. H. and Z. Schwartz, et al. (2000). "Pulsed electromagnetic field stimulation of MG63 osteoblast-like cells affects differentiation and local factor production." Journal of Orthopaedic Research 18(4): 637-46.
    III. Rubin, C. and A. S. Turner, et al. (2002). "Mechanical strain, induced non-invasively in the high-frequency domain, is anabolic to cancellous bone, but not cortical bone." Bone 30(3): 445-452.
    IV. Tanaka, S. M. and I. Alam, et al. (2003). "Stochastic resonance in osteogenic response to mechanical loading." FASEB J. 17: 313-314.
    V. Warden, S. J.C. H. Turner (2004). "Mechanotransduction in the cortical bone is most efficient at loading frequencies of 5-10 Hz." Bone 34(2): 261-270.

  5. Outreach activities

    6. None as Yet.

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Australian tissue engineering interest groups

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. No.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • Qualified Biomedical Engineer
    • Medical/Mechanical Device Design (ProEngineer Solid Modeling Program)
    • Mathematical cell simulation
    • Electrical circuit design and production
    • Engineering Material Testing
    • Tissue culture (standard)
    • Reviving, maintaining and freezing down clonal mammalian cell lines
    • Radiolabelled proliferation assays
    • Adsorption spectrophotometer assays
    • Computer programming (C)
  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • Animal tissue culture facilities (including human, primary and continuous cell lines)
    • Radiolabelling of proteins.
    • Computer software (Pro/ENGINEER, MatLab, Solid Works, Lab View)
    • Visible/UV light absorbance, luminescence and beta radiation plate readers.
    • Material Testing Instruments (Tensile/Compressive and Hardness testing machines)
    • Basic materials preparation facilities (grinding, polishing, etching, etc)
    • High Voltage Power Supply
    • Tesla Meter
    • Real Time Arbitrary Signal Generator
    • Leica Digitised Microscope
  11. Contact Details 

    Mr Gwynne Hannay PhD Student
    Address: School of MMME Queensland University of Technology Brisbane
    Country: Australia
    Phone: +61 7 3864 9043
    Fax: +61 7 3864 1469
    Email: g.hannay@qut.edu.au

© 2004

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