Design and fabrication of small animal loading device

It is known that osteocytes have certain response to cyclic mechanical loading, resulting in bone formation. However, Prof. You’s laboratory is lack of a compressive loading device for small animal to implement this bone biomechanics experiment. Therefore, investigating the relationship between osteocytic responses and periodic loading becomes difficult in vivo situations. The project focuses on designing and finally fabricating a customized small animal-loading device, which apply a constant force within a constant frequency. To complete this project, my partner, Akash, and I will work with a senior graduate student, Henry. We will start from online research to SolidWorks design and components machining. Eventually, we aim to utilize our customized device in real lab experiments, helping others exploring osteocytes’ cellular activity under cyclic loading circumstance.