A skull’s soft joints—the cranial sutures—are fusing too early in a growing number of children, and no one knows why. This project tackles that gap by asking a deceptively simple engineering question: what forces does a growing skull actually experience? Without that basic mechanical knowledge, treatments for conditions like craniosynostosis—where sutures harden prematurely, restricting brain growth—remain crude and reactive. The researcher has already shown in mice that a new therapy can work; this grant will expand that work to understand the underlying mechanism, test it in larger animals, and run proof-of-concept studies toward human trials. At the same time, the project will map the biomechanics of current surgical treatments, which are themselves poorly understood. If successful, the work could replace invasive skull-remodelling surgery with a far gentler intervention for children, and also improve how surgeons manage large skull defects in adults after stroke or traumatic brain injury. This is fundamental mechanobiology with a direct translational path—high risk, but with the potential to change a standard of care that has barely shifted in decades.
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Our skulls consist of several bones that are joined together along their edges by soft tissues called cranial joints or sutures. During infancy, our skulls grow rapidly in size and shape to accommodate our brain growth. Once the brain has reached its maximum size, soft tissues at the sutures turn into bone to protect our brain and enable us to bite harder. Our fundamental understanding of the level of forces that our skulls and its cranial joints experience during the growth is extremely limited. This lack of knowledge has limited our ability to advance treatment of a wide range of craniofacial conditions affecting: children e.g. craniosynostosis is a medical condition caused by early fusion of cranial joints that has very nearly doubled in incidence across Europe in the last 30 years for unknown reasons adults e.g. large calvarial defects increasingly being used for the management of ischaemic stroke and traumatic brain injury Thus, this is a huge engineering challenge that requires in-depth investigations using a range of advanced techniques. CranioMech aims to address these engineering challenges and critical gaps in our knowledge while focusing on developing a revolutionary therapy for craniosynostosis (CS). CranioMech builds on my network of collaborators and strong track record in this field, significant institutional support (ca. £690k), as well as my recent work (in vivo mouse testing) that demonstrates the feasibility of a therapy that could become a reality for children of the 21st century. CranioMech aims to: (1) further expand on my therapy in mouse and unravel the fundamental underlying mechanism by which it works; (2) test its scalability in larger animal models; and (3) carry out a series of proof of concept studies in preparation for the first human trials, while unravelling the biomechanics of current treatments of CS. This is a truly high risk, high gain multidisciplinary, multi-scale project, combining fundamental principles with significant translational potential. It will use a combination of advanced approaches e.g. computer simulation, manufacturing, imaging, sensing and in vivo experiments to transform the treatment of CS by resolving its unknown mechanics. This is a neglected area, well in line with EPSRC Healthcare Technologies themes and the UK strategy for rare diseases that can offer a beacon of equality, diversity, inclusion (EDI) & responsible research and innovation (RRI).
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