L'ISM est collaborateur et partenaire de cette ERC :
Biological materials exhibit outstanding mechanical properties and combine seemingly contradictory features like strength and toughness. This is caused by the intricate, hierarchical organization of these materials on the nanostructural and crystal structural level, the so-called crystallographic texture. The determination of the crystallographic texture and the local nanostructure in 3D, while retaining a large field of view is an unsolved problem until now.
In the framework of the ERC Starting grant project “TexTOM”, this problem is going to be solved by introducing texture tomography, a 3D imaging technique based on X-ray diffraction and employed a synchrotron radiation source, schematically sketched in Fig 1.
With this technique, it will be possible to understand the structure of the enthesis (Fig 2), the biological connection between bone and tendon, which is often involved in orthopedic injuries.
Together with his collaborators at the Institute des Sciences du Mouvement, Marseille, he will establish the relation between the hierarchical organization and the mechanical properties of the enthesis and use this information to develop a micromechanical model of the enthesis.
