Amir Darabi

Name and Position:

Amir Darabi
Graduate Research Assistant

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department
Montana State University

What were your central research questions or interests?

My research involves material and mechanical characterization of bio-inspired polymers with tunable mechanical response, using various techniques, e.g. dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). I am also using my AFM experience in a collaboration with Heveran lab on bone research. In this collaboration, we are investigating the role of osteocytes, the most abundant and longest-lived of the bone cells, in maintaining their local bone properties. We are trying to understand the gradations of material properties in bone tissue surrounding osteocytes in hopes of better understanding how these cells locally modulate their surrounding environment and may contribute to whole-bone mechanical properties.

What motivated or inspired your research?

In recent years, osteocytes have been implicated in controlling bone quality through directly resorbing or depositing local bone material in a process known as perilacunar remodeling. Previous studies have used microscale techniques to map gradations in bone material properties, but microscale measurements are not sufficient to capture mechanical effects of perilacunar remodeling. This is why we chose to employ AFM to capture nanoscale gradations in bone tissue material properties surrounding osteocytes in hopes of better understanding the effects of perilacunar remodeling on bone quality.

What is your academic background, and what professional development prepared you to do this research (i.e., what advice to young scientists who might be interested in pursuing this research as a career opportunity?)

In 2016, I earned my BS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tehran in Iran, where I worked as a surface nano-engineering lab member.  I received my Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 from North Dakota State University, and my thesis was focused on Simulation of Hard Coatings. I now work and study at Montana State University and will graduate with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2023. Surface and material engineering is a passion of mine and I have had the privilege to pursue different research in line with my interests. As a researcher, I believe that it is most important to choose a career path that you are passionate about, because there are days that only that passion will encourage you to keep going forward.