Fiona Zhang

I am a PhD student studying bioengineering in the reserach group led by Dr Junning Chen.

My interests in biomedical engineering persist from my bachelor degree in the Univeristy of Sydney, where I graduated with a firts-degree honor in 2020, from there, I am very glad that I continued my exploration journal in the UK as a postgraduate researcher. Following some preliminary programs as my bachelor thesis, naming as the side-effect of bisphosphonates on the spontaneous medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ), where I learned how to focus on a specific researching topic and apply image processing and finite element analysis to suggest the invisible progress and pathogenesis of MRONJ.

My current research is basicly about the calvarial suture, which is an essential but understudied immovable joint. Based on the motivation to help new born babies with craniosynostosis (prematurely fusion of one or more calvarial sutures) escape the very invasive surgical treatment, which is the mandatory method now, I use mouse skull models to study both the normal and, in the near future, the diseased progress of calvarial bone development. It is realised by combinig different modalities of microscopes, image processing and analysis tools, as well as model building approaches, to explore the localised corelation between characteristics of osteocyte network, collagen organisation, and mineralisation distribution.