Imaging and Modelling Tissue Structure to Inform the Development of Musculoskeletal Therapies

Biomanufacturing is moving rapidly towards recreating the complex, hierarchical structures of native tissues. With such advances comes a need to provide a detailed characterisation of the physical interaction between synthetic structures and the biological environment, and to provide increasingly detailed and/or specific targets for synthesis/manufacturing. The musculoskeletal system is a functionally challenging environment in which to apply these synthetic constructs, reflected in the difficulties faced by current treatment approaches. Limited information on the functional role of low-level structural features provides a further challenge. Here, we discuss imaging and modelling approaches for providing this characterisation, focusing on scanning probe microscopy, nonlinear optical methods and vibrational spectroscopy for probing structure, and numerical modeling to explore the potential roles of observed structural features.