Budday, Silvia, Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Silvia Budday

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Lehrstuhl für Kontinuumsmechanik (Schwerpunkt Biomechanik) (LKM, Prof. Budday)

Room: Raum 00.011
Egerlandstr. 5
91058 Erlangen

Short Bio

Silvia Budday, currently a Full Professor heading the Institute of Continuum Mechanics and Biomechanics (LKM), studied Mechanical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where she graduated with one of the four best Bachelor’s degrees in 2011 and the best Master’s degree of a female student in 2013. During her Master’s studies, she spent one year abroad at Purdue University, Indiana, USA, for which she received an international scholarship by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). She was also a scholar of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. She did her PhD on “The Role of Mechanics during Brain Development” at FAU supervised by Prof. Paul Steinmann in close collaboration with Prof. Ellen Kuhl at Stanford University and Prof. Gerhard Holzapfel at Graz University of Technology. She finished her PhD in December 2017 with “summa cum laude” and was awarded the GACM Best PhD Award (German Association for Computational Mechanics) and the ECCOMAS Best PhD Award for one of the two best PhD theses in the field of Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering in Europe in 2017. Furthermore, she received the Bertha Benz-Prize from the Daimler und Benz Stiftung as a woman visionary pioneer in engineering, and the 2017 Acta Journals Students Award. In July 2018, she received an Emerging Talents Initiative (ETI) Grant, and in October 2018 an Emerging Fields Initiative (EFI) Grant by the FAU. Since April 2019, she is leading a research group in the Emmy Noether-Programme by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on BRAIn mechaNIcs ACross Scales (BRAINIACS). In 2021, she was awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Prize by the DFG and BMBF and the Richard-von-Mises-Prize by the International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM). In 2023, she received an ERC Starting Grant for her project “Mechanics-augmented brain surgery (MAGERY)”. Her work focuses on experimental and computational soft tissue biomechanics with special emphasis on brain mechanics and the relationship between brain structure and function.

Research

  • Exploring Brain Mechanics (EBM): Understanding, engineering and exploiting mechanical properties and signals in central nervous system development, physiology and pathology

    (Third Party Funds Group – Overall project)

    Term: 1. January 2023 - 31. December 2026
    Funding source: DFG / Sonderforschungsbereich / Transregio (SFB / TRR)
    Abstract

    Thecentral nervous system (CNS) is our most complex organ system. Despite tremendousprogress in our understanding of the biochemical, electrical, and geneticregulation of CNS functioning and malfunctioning, many fundamental processesand diseases are still not fully understood. For example, axon growth patterns inthe developing brain can currently not be well-predicted based solely on thechemical landscape that neurons encounter, several CNS-related diseases cannotbe precisely diagnosed in living patients, and neuronal regeneration can stillnot be promoted after spinal cord injuries.

    Duringmany developmental and pathological processes, neurons and glial cells aremotile. Fundamentally, motion is drivenby forces. Hence, CNS cells mechanicallyinteract with their surrounding tissue. They adhere to neighbouring cells and extracellular matrix using celladhesion molecules, which provide friction, and generate forces usingcytoskeletal proteins.  These forces aretransmitted to the outside world not only to locomote but also to probe themechanical properties of the environment, which has a long overseen huge impacton cell function.

    Onlyrecently, groups of several project leaders in this consortium, and a few other groupsworldwide, have discovered an important contribution of mechanical signalsto regulating CNS cell function. For example, they showed that brain tissuemechanics instructs axon growth and pathfinding in vivo, that mechanicalforces play an important role for cortical folding in the developing humanbrain, that the lack of remyelination in the aged brain is due to an increasein brain stiffness in vivo, and that many neurodegenerative diseases areaccompanied by changes in brain and spinal cord mechanics. These first insights strongly suggest thatmechanics contributes to many other aspects of CNS functioning, and it islikely that chemical and mechanical signals intensely interact at the cellularand tissue levels to regulate many diverse cellular processes.

    The CRC 1540 EBM synergises the expertise of engineers, physicists,biologists, medical researchers, and clinicians in Erlangen to explore mechanicsas an important yet missing puzzle stone in our understanding of CNSdevelopment, homeostasis, and pathology. Our strongly multidisciplinary teamwith unique expertise in CNS mechanics integrates advanced invivo, in vitro, and in silico techniques across time(development, ageing, injury/disease) and length (cell, tissue, organ) scalesto uncover how mechanical forces and mechanical cell and tissue properties,such as stiffness and viscosity, affect CNS function. We especially focus on(A) cerebral, (B) spinal, and (C) cellular mechanics. Invivo and in vitro studies provide a basic understanding ofmechanics-regulated biological and biomedical processes in different regions ofthe CNS. In addition, they help identify key mechano-chemical factors forinclusion in in silico models and provide data for model calibration andvalidation. In silico models, in turn, allow us to test hypotheses without the need of excessive or even inaccessibleexperiments. In addition, they enable the transfer and comparison of mechanics data and findingsacross species and scales. They also empower us to optimise processparameters for the development of in vitro brain tissue-like matricesand in vivo manipulation of mechanical signals, and, eventually, pavethe way for personalised clinical predictions.

    Insummary, we exploit mechanics-based approaches to advance ourunderstanding of CNS function and to provide the foundation for futureimprovement of diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.

  • Biofabrizierte Gradienten für funktionale Ersatzgewebe (B09*)

    (Third Party Funds Group – Sub project)

    Overall project: TRR 225: Von den Grundlagen der Biofabrikation zu funktionalen Gewebemodellen
    Term: since 1. January 2022
    Funding source: DFG / Sonderforschungsbereich / Transregio (SFB / TRR)
    URL: https://trr225biofab.de/project-b09/
    Abstract

    Ziel dieses Projekts ist es, eine Plattformtechnologie zu entwickeln, um in Raum und Zeit klar definierte und reproduzierbare Gradienten herzustellen, diese zu analysieren und in silico zu modellieren, um ihre Auswirkung auf Zell-Biomaterial-Interaktionen untersuchen zu können. Hierfür sollen zunächst Druckköpfe entwickelt werden, mit denen sich kontrolliert Übergänge von Materialien aus den A-/B-Projekten, Wirkstoffen und Zellen erzeugen lassen. Durch die umfassende Charakterisierung der gedruckten Gradienten mithilfe mechanischer Testmethoden in Kombination mit bildgebenden Verfahren wird das Ergebnis bezüglich der Anforderungen der C-Projekte stetig analysiert und verbessert. Zusätzlich werden kontinuumsmechanische Modellierung und Simulation gezielt eingesetzt, um Prozessparameter, das Druckmuster und die 3D-Anordung im Konstrukt zu optimieren.

  • Experimente, Modellierung und Computersimulationen zur Charakterisierung des porösen und viskosen Verhaltens von menschlichen Gehirngewebe

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Term: 1. July 2021 - 30. April 2024
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)

  • Experimente, Modellierung und Computersimulationen zur Charakterisierung des porösen und viskosen Verhaltens von menschlichem Gehirngewebe

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Term: 1. July 2021 - 30. April 2024
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)

  • BRAIn mechaNIcs ACross Scales: Linking microstructure, mechanics and pathology

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Term: 1. October 2019 - 30. September 2025
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Emmy-Noether-Programm (EIN-ENP)
    URL: https://www.brainiacs.forschung.fau.de/
    Abstract

    The current research project aims to develop microstructurallymotivated mechanical models for brain tissue that facilitate early diagnosticsof neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative diseases and enable the developmentof novel treatment strategies. In a first step, we will experimentallycharacterize the behavior of brain tissue across scales by using versatiletesting techniques on the same sample. Through an accompanying microstructuralanalysis of both cellular and extra-cellular components, we will evaluate thecomplex interplay of brain structure, mechanics and function. We will alsoexperimentally investigate dynamic changes in tissue properties duringdevelopment and disease, due to changes in the mechanical environment of cells (mechanosensing),or external loading. Based on the simultaneous analysis of experimental andmicrostructural data, we will develop microstructurally motivated constitutive lawsfor the regionally varying mechanical behavior of brain tissue. In addition, wewill develop evolution laws that predict remodeling processes duringdevelopment, homeostasis, and disease. Through the implementation within afinite element framework, we will simulate the behavior of brain tissue underphysiological and pathological conditions. We will predict how known biologicalprocesses on the cellular scale, such as changes in the tissue’smicrostructure, translate into morphological changes on the macroscopic scale,which are easily detectable through modern imaging techniques. We will analyzeprogression of disease or mechanically-induced loss of brain function. The novelexperimental procedures on the borderline of mechanics and biology, togetherwith comprehensive theoretical and computational models, will form thecornerstone for predictive simulations that improve early diagnostics of pathologicalconditions, advance medical treatment strategies, and reduce the necessity ofanimal and human tissue experimentation. The established methodology will furtheropen new pathways in the biofabrication of artificial organs.

  • Novel Biopolymer Hydrogels for Understanding Complex Soft Tissue Biomechanics

    (FAU Funds)

    Term: 1. April 2019 - 31. March 2022
    URL: https://www.biohydrogels.forschung.fau.de/
    Abstract

    Biological tissues such as blood vessels, skin, cartilage or nervous tissue provide vital functionality
    to living organisms. Novel computational simulations of these tissues can provide insights
    into their biomechanics during injury and disease that go far beyond traditional approaches. This
    is of ever increasing importance in industrial and medical applications as numerical models will
    enable early diagnostics of diseases, detailed planning and optimization of surgical procedures,
    and not least will reduce the necessity of animal and human experimentation. However, the extreme
    compliance of these, from a mechanical perspective, particular soft tissues stretches conventional
    modeling and testing approaches to their limits. Furthermore, the diverse microstructure
    has, to date, hindered their systematic mechanical characterization. In this project, we will, as a
    novel perspective, categorize biological tissues according to their mechanical behavior and identify
    biofabricated proxy (substitute) materials with similar properties to reduce challenges related
    to experimental characterization of living tissues. We will further develop appropriate mathematical
    models that allow us to computationally predict the tissue response based on these proxy
    materials. Collectively, we will provide a catalogue of biopolymeric proxy materials for different
    soft tissues with corresponding modeling approaches. As a prospect, this will significantly facilitate
    the choice of appropriate materials for 3D biofabrication of artificial organs, as well as modeling
    approaches for predictive simulations. These form the cornerstone of advanced medical
    treatment strategies and engineering design processes, leveraging virtual prototyping.

  • Multiscale modeling of nervous tissue: comprehensively linking microstructure, pathology, and mechanics

    (FAU Funds)

    Term: 1. July 2018 - 30. June 2019

  • Modeling and computation of growth in soft biological matter

    (Third Party Funds Single)

    Term: 1. February 2014 - 30. June 2020
    Funding source: DFG-Einzelförderung / Sachbeihilfe (EIN-SBH)

Publications

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Teaching

Laboratory Training Biomechanics

since 2023

Biomechanics

2018 – 2023

Linear Continuum Mechanics

Winter term 2019/2020

Introduction to Neuromechanics

Summer terms 2016 and 2019