Tengteng (Toni) Tang
About
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Adaptation of the structure at all levels of hierarchy. The main focus of Dr. Tang's lab is to understand how these structures relate to their biomechanical functions across multiple length scales, with a particular interest at micro- and nanoscale levels. This understanding is critically important as some musculoskeletal diseases originate at the fundamental building block levels of individual collagen fibrils and mineral particles, such as in spinal disc degeneraition and osteoarthritis.
By leveraging some of the most advanced imaging and characterization techniques, such as 3D volume electron tomography, correlative light and electron tomography, synchrotron X-ray scattering, and X-ray microscopy, and AI-driven image analysis, Dr. Tang's team aims to reveal some of the most complex biological tissue functions in bone, cartilage, tendon or related structures.
Before joining UVA, Dr. Tang was an Adjunct Professor and Research Associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster University, Canada. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the University of British Columbia, followed by post-doctoral training in the Department of Biomaterials at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm, Germany.
Education
Research Associate, Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University
Post-doc, Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces
Ph.D., Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia
B.Eng., Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Research Interests
Selected Publications
Courses
Awards and Professional Service
Featured Grants & Projects
This research advances biomechanics and mechanobiology by explaining how bone, as a hierarchical composite material, resists or accumulates fatigue damage. Its central premise is that whether a microscopic crack remains stable or grows into a stress fracture is governed by the local material quality of the bone and by its architecture, from mineral and collagen, to the cellular network that pervades the tissue, to features nanometers in size. The project first applies physiologically realistic cyclic loading to human hip bones from matched male and female donors and uses full-field optical strain measurement to locate where fatigue cracks form. It then resolves the finer scales: mineral content and distribution are quantified by electron microscopy imaging; fatigue cracks are reconstructed in three dimensions by high-resolution light microscopy and related directly to the surrounding cellular network; and crack interactions with the smallest features are imaged by high-resolution volume electron microscopy. By connecting whole-bone mechanics to tissue, cellular, and nanoscale structure, the project addresses a central question in biomechanics and mechanobiology: how biological architecture governs fatigue failure. The resulting framework also transfers to other mineralized tissues and to the design of fatigue-resistant engineered materials.
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UVA Develops a ‘Google Earth’ View of Bone — With an Eye Toward Disease Prevention
Read NowToni Tang of the Center for Applied Biometrics has collaborated on a biological imaging and characterization approach that allows 3D imaging of bone across all relevant measures for the first time.