This Friday, Nov. 10, the Department of Biomedical Engineering will host seminar speaker Erin Mannen, assistant professor and director of orthopaedic research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The seminar will take place in from 11:50 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. in Gearhart Hall Room 26.

Mannen earned her doctorate in mechanical engineering studying cadaveric thoracic spine biomechanics from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2014, and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship focusing on human motion analysis in the Center for Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the University of Denver in Colorado in 2017. Mannen's current research interests include characterization of cadaveric spinal motion, and women's and infant biomechanics during babywearing.

In her seminar, titled "Advancing Thoracic Spine Biomechanical Testing: Improve the Model, Trust the Results," Mannen will discuss cadaveric biomechanical testing, one of the best tools that engineers and clinicians have to understand the mechanical impact of surgical procedures and implants on joints. The thoracic spine and rib cage construct represents one of the most mechanically complicated structures in the human body, presenting challenges in developing physiologically accurate cadaveric models. Mannen will explain how her research seeks to improve upon the cadaveric thoracic spine model in order to better interpret results of biomechanical testing of surgical procedures and implants in the thoracic spine.