UL’s Dr John Mulvihill talks about cellular mechanobiology, the mothers of the meninges and how his research might help predict recovery after head injuries.
Dr John Mulvihill is an associate professor in biomedical engineering at the University of Limerick (UL), where he specialises in soft biological tissue biomechanics and cellular mechanobiology.
Mulvihill wears many hats at UL. As well as being the course director of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering, he is also chair of UL’s Research Ethics Governance Committee – a role he was appointed to in June of this year.
The former Marie Curie Fellow is also the current conference chair for Royal Academy of Medicine Ireland BioEngineering in Ireland 2026.
Despite the wide array of responsibilities, Mulvihill also finds time to conduct pioneering research into biological tissue behaviours – with his current endeavours concerning the effects of brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury.
Here, Mulvihill talks to SiliconRepublic.com about the realities and surprises of his research.
Can you tell me a bit about your current research?
My research revolves around characterising how biological tissue behaves under mechanical loading, what the tissue is composed of, and how the tissue responds to conditions that mimic disease or injury such as Alzheimer’s disease or concussion.
I have applied these research methodologies to cardiovascular (veins and arteries), digestive (stomach and gastrointestinal) and urological (urethra) tissue, but my current research focuses on understanding more about the meninges and addressing the gaps in our knowledge of this tissue and its role.
What are the meninges? Not many have heard of this tissue, but most of us have heard of meningitis, which is the inflammation of the meninges. It is rare that we know more about the disease rather than the tissue it affects!
The meninges is a set of tissues that encapsulate (adjacent to) the brain and are known to be a mechanically protective tissue of the brain.
Our lack of knowledge can be attributed to the historical clinical assumption that the meninges was just a mechanically protective, almost inert, tissue that played no other role. That is what drew me to research these tissues as it fascinated me that we knew so little about a tissue that was so close to one of the most important organs in our body.
However, even since I began working with this tissue in 2017, our knowledge has expanded, and it is known to play an immunological and inflammatory role in our central nervous system acting like an alarm response system for any potential acute injury – it is exciting to play a small role in this advancement of knowledge.
Why is your research important?
I have contributed significantly to the current state-of-the-art in the characterisation of human meningeal tissue. I was the first to mechanically and structurally characterise the major tissue components of the human falx cerebri and sagittal sinus as well as the regional properties of the meninges tissue.
This is all based on my extensive experience in the mechanical characterisation of soft biological tissue from cardiovascular, urological and digestive tissues.
My work on the meninges established the mechanically homogeneous behaviour of the meninges at a macroscale. I discovered that, while the meninges behave uniformly at a large scale, their microscopic structure varies, which affects how cells sense and respond to mechanical changes.
More recently, I have established the mechanosensitive nature of the cells of the meninges to both alterations in fluid flow and mechanical stiffness, demonstrating that these meninges can sense change in mechanics. Ultimately, I am working toward creating a lab-on-a-chip platform of the meninges to examine its role in health and diseased conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and concussion (a mild form of traumatic brain injury).
What is cellular mechanobiology and how can it be utilised in relation to traumatic brain injury?
Cellular mechanobiology is the study of how cells respond to forces (or mechanics), and traumatic brain injury is an extreme example of mechanobiology as it is a large ‘force’ being applied to a cell.
By studying cells that are placed under these mimetic forces we can determine if the cell can survive, and if so, can the cell return to its normal behaviour or functions prior to the force, mimicking that of the real-life scenario but at a cellular level.
Using cellular mechanobiology, we can determine if the cells can express or secrete a particular ‘biomarker’ (or signal) that helps us predict if, or when, that cell returns back to normal.
Why is this important? Think of it like a stress test for cells – when they’re pushed or stretched, they send out signals. If we can identify these signals, we could predict recovery after injuries like concussion.
If such a biomarker is secreted at a clinical level, then we could potentially use it as an indicator of when a professional athlete can return to play after a concussion. By measuring such biomarkers in our blood or saliva we could use it as a prognostic tool for concussion. Such methods are not unique to TBI and can be used for any cell that undergoes a force.
‘Research ethics isn’t a barrier, it is a foundation for good science’
What has been the most surprising/exciting developments or discoveries in your research?
The meninges are made up of three layers; the dura mater, arachnoid mater and pia mater. These names roughly translate from Latin to be ‘tough mother’, ‘spider mother’ and ‘tender mother’, respectively. These terms date back to the 12th century, and my work unsurprisingly verified the terms attributed to these layers all those years ago. The pia mater is the layer closest to the brain and from my work was found to be the most mechanically soft of the layers. The dura mater, closest to the skull, is much stiffer than the pia mater near the brain, almost like comparing leather to silk.
Previous to my work, there was no simple in vitro cellular models of the meninges and in particular how it interacts with the brain. Now that I have an established in vitro model of the meninges, we can ask interesting questions or apply conditions that mimic diseases and injuries such as Alzheimer’s disease and concussion.
Our work established that the meninges is not just a protective tissue for the brain but can act as an alarm response for acute injury (such as concussion) and can aid in how the brain can recover from such injuries by promoting the inflammatory response.
What are some common misconceptions about your work?
When you think of a concussion and how the brain may move during a concussive impact, you probably visualise the brain moving like jelly in the skull back and forth.
However, this is not the case as the meninges prevents this movement in multiple ways. First, the meninges contains a fluid (cerebrospinal fluid) which makes the brain buoyant and secondly, the meninges tethers the brain to the skull at multiple points.
Instead of bouncing around freely, the brain is cushioned by fluid and anchored by the meninges, which act like safety straps. This highlights the importance of meninges in carrying out one of its major functions in the body.
As chair of UL’s Research Ethics Governance Committee, what are some important considerations when it comes to ethical research?
Research ethics isn’t a barrier, it is a foundation for good science. When built into research from the start, it strengthens the work rather than slowing it down. As long as you engage with ethical principles during the concept of a scientific idea then it will never be a hindrance once integrated into your experimental design.
At UL, our Research Ethics Committees are open to engaging with all researchers at any stage of their research journey and ensuring that our research is conducted to best practice of research ethics.
Research ethics always has new challenges to face such as the age of AI and its integration into research. As AI becomes part of research, ethics will help us navigate questions about data privacy, bias and accountability.
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