Congratulations to Stefaan and co-authors whose paper entitled “Altered Biomechanical Stimulation of the Developing Hip Joint in Presence of Hip Dysplasia Risk Factors” (soon to be published in the Journal of Biomechanics) has been awarded the 2018 S.M. Perren Award by the European Society of Biomechanics! Stefaan will present a plenary lecture of the World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin, Ireland in July. 
Fetal movement sensor paper published
Our paper on developing a new type of sensor for fetal movements has been published in PLoS One! The paper describes how acoustic sensors are combined with accelerometers for the first time. The sensor was able to detect and identify the short, rigorous ‘startle’ movements of the fetus. Further development is ongoing, but this is an important first step! The work builds on a patent held by the several of the authors, including Niamh.
Citation: Lai J, Woodward R, Alexandrov Y, ain Munnee Q, Lees CC, Vaidyanathan R, Nowlan NC. Performance of a wearable acoustic system for fetal movement discrimination. PloS one. 2018 May 7;13(5):e0195728.
Paper on fetal movement forces published in Interface
Stefaan‘s work on quantifying the stresses and strains induced by fetal kicks over gestation has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The work attracted a lot of publicity, being featured by Nature, Science and Newsweek and on the Imperial College website. Congratulations Stefaan! See here for the online version of the paper, and access the pdf here.
New review paper: Ontogeny of the human pelvis
Stefaan and Niamh have published a new review paper entitled “Ontogeny of the human pelvis“, in a special issue of the Anatomical Record dedicated to the anatomy, development and function of the human pelvis
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Spine development abnormal when fetus is immobile
Rebecca’s paper entitled “Abnormal fetal muscle forces result in defects in spinal curvature and alterations in vertebral segmentation and shape” has been accepted by the Journal of Orthopaedic Research! Former UROP and MRes students (James, Tyler and Zuheir) are also co-authors, as are Nowlan group collaborators Michelle Oyen (University of Cambridge, UK) and James Iatridis (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA).
Developmental Biomechanics 