Growing Matter Lab
Research
How do tissues respond to forces, and what can this tell us about health and disease? We bring together patient-specific geometry, simulation and machine learning to study blood vessels, the eye and soft tissues.
Research areas
Cardiovascular biomechanics
What can vessel shape and blood flow tell us about disease?
Arteries with similar diameters can have very different shapes and flow patterns. We study the aorta and carotid arteries to understand how these differences affect the forces acting on vessel walls. Our approach combines patient-derived anatomy, blood-flow simulation and virtual populations: collections of computer-generated anatomies that capture variation between people.
For abdominal aortic aneurysms, we investigate neck geometry and overall shape alongside maximum diameter. In a separate carotid study, we reconstruct arteries from three-dimensional ultrasound and examine links between simulated flow patterns and cardiovascular events. These studies explore which measurements could contribute to future assessments of vascular disease.
Ocular biomechanics
How does the shape of the eye affect what we measure?
A retinal image records both the structures at the back of the eye and the effects of image magnification. Differences between images can therefore reflect eye size as well as differences in the tissue itself. We study how individual eye geometry affects the interpretation of clinical images.
Our work combines automated image analysis with measurements of axial length, the distance from the front to the back of the eye. In a recent study of children and young adults, accounting for this length reduced systematic errors in retinal blood-vessel measurements. This helps make comparisons between eyes more reliable and provides a basis for developing image-based measures of health.
Selected paper
Soft tissue mechanics
How do fibres and repeated loading shape tissue behaviour?
Tendons and other connective tissues can stretch, bend and change their response as loading continues. Their fibres also make them behave differently in different directions. Capturing these effects is essential for understanding how tissues carry forces and deform.
We develop finite element methods that represent large changes in shape, together with models of fibre orientation, time-dependent behaviour and damage from repeated loading. In our Achilles tendon study, we compared the computed response with experimental data and detailed three-dimensional simulations. This tests how well the methods reproduce tissue behaviour and provides a basis for studying more complex loading and movement.
Computational methods
These methods support our work in biomechanics and wider engineering.
Finite element simulation
We develop finite element methods to model how soft tissues and flexible structures bend, stretch and make contact. Our work covers large deformation and ways to reduce artificial stiffness introduced by the numerical method.
Selected papers
Scientific machine learning
We use neural networks to learn numerical operations and relationships between measurements and physical responses. Examples include mesh-free fluid-flow calculations and estimating forces on structures from measurements of waves.
Selected papers
Uncertainty quantification
We study how uncertainty in geometry, material properties and loading affects predictions. By varying model inputs, we estimate a range of possible responses, including in simulations of waves interacting with structures.
Selected paper
Impact & spin-offs
Our methods can also address challenges beyond biomechanics. Spin-offs help turn this research into tools that organisations can use.
University of Manchester spin-out
Launched 2026.
Precica
Making large datasets easier to store and use.
Founded by Ajay B. Harish, Precica is a University of Manchester spin-out developing data compression that keeps information searchable and ready for analysis.
The idea grew from the challenge of storing and exploring large simulation datasets, taking research from the lab into commercial development.
Funding & partners
Peripheral work
The methods we develop are not specific to biology. Surrogate modelling, contact mechanics, and uncertainty quantification transfer readily to engineering structures, and we keep a small thread of work on deployable space structures alongside the main programme.