Professor Hanna Isaksson has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant to develop a tool aimed at improving and personalising rehabilitation following an Achilles tendon rupture.
Hanna Isaksson is professor of biomedical engineering at Lund University and leads a research group in musculoskeletal biomechanics. The European Research Council's Proof of Concept grant amounts to EUR 150,000 and is awarded to researchers who have previously received ERC funding to explore the commercial or societal potential of their research results. The funding is part of the EU's research and innovation programme Horizon Europe.
Congratulations! Can you tell us a little about your project?
"Thank you! We want to develop a tool to improve and personalise rehabilitation following an Achilles tendon rupture. Every year, around 15 million tendon and ligament injuries occur worldwide, with the Achilles tendon being the most frequently injured tendon. Tendons respond to mechanical loading, meaning that controlled loading can promote healing, while inappropriate loading can lead to re-rupture or impaired recovery. This in turn can result in prolonged sick leave and difficulties returning to physical activity after injury."
What do you hope to achieve with your research?
"In a previous ERC-funded project, we developed and validated an advanced computational framework capable of predicting tendon healing under different loading conditions. The model can describe how cells sense mechanical signals and where and when new tendon tissue forms during the healing process. The development was carried out using a rat model, which allowed us to carefully control both loading conditions and tissue formation.
We now want to investigate whether the framework can also predict healing in humans, and if so, whether it has potential applications in healthcare. We will test whether the model can identify patients at risk of delayed or unsuccessful healing by comparing our simulations with clinical data from previous studies of patients with Achilles tendon ruptures.
The project will use clinical imaging data, repeated measurements of the tendon's mechanical properties, and information on treatment, rehabilitation, and patients' functional recovery."
What does the ERC grant mean to you?
"It is incredibly exciting! The ERC Proof of Concept grant gives us the opportunity to further develop the results from our ERC project. It allows us to investigate whether our method can predict tendon healing in patients. If successful, we will be able to simulate and study how different rehabilitation exercises affect tendon healing, helping us identify rehabilitation protocols that could improve the healing process."
