Professor Delphine Gourdon

  • Professor in Biomedical Engineering / Royal Society Wolfson Fellow (Biomedical Engineering)

email: Delphine.Gourdon@glasgow.ac.uk

Advanced Research Center (ARC), 11 Chapel Lane, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G11 6EW

Import to contacts

Biography

Professor Delphine Gourdon is the Principal Investigator of the Mechanobiology and Tribology Group and a member of the Division of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering. Before joining the University of Glasgow in 2020, Delphine was Associate Professor at the Physics Department of University of Ottawa (ON, Canada) from 2016 and Assistant Professor at the Materials and Engineering Department of Cornell University (NY, USA) from 2009.

Delphine has 65+ publications in leading international journals and has been Principal Investigator in a number of national and international grants. She won the prestigious NSF-CAREER Award in the USA in 2014 (National Science Foundation, Biomaterials Division). She was then awarded a CFI-JELF grant in Canada in 2017 (Canada Foundation for Innovation). More recently, she was the recipient of a Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society (UK).

Research interests

Delphine integrates approaches from engineering, physics and materials science to focus on mechanobiology and tribology of biomaterials. Together with key local and international collaborators, her group addresses a broad range of topics including the design of advanced biomaterials/biointerfaces for breast cancer mechanobiology research, and the design of biomimetics for lubrication purposes

In a first project, she works on material-based strategies to engineer in vitro 3D models to better understand breast cancer growth and metastasis. Specifically, her lab uses freezecasting techniques to generate a variety of 3D proteins platforms with tuneable architecture, conformation and mechanics that mimic tumorous microenvironments.

In a second project, she uses a unique tool called the Surface Forces Apparatus to characterize the lubrication of synovial fluid components to find cheap alternatives to synovial fluid for use in articular joints and prosthetic implants in vivo.

Her group is within the Center for the Cellular Microenvironment, a cross-college multidisciplinary initiative.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2022 | 2019 | 2015
Number of items: 7.

2025

Walker, M. , Gourdon, D. and Cantini, M. (2025) Beyond static models: Mechanically dynamic matrices reveal new insights into cancer and fibrosis progression. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 33, 100570. (doi: 10.1016/j.cobme.2024.100570)

2024

Walker, M. , Pringle, E. W., Ciccone, G., Oliver Cervello, L., Tassieri, M. , Gourdon, D. and Cantini, M. (2024) Mind the viscous modulus: the mechanotransductive response to the viscous nature of isoelastic matrices regulates stem cell chondrogenesis. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 13(9), 2302571. (doi: 10.1002/adhm.202302571) (PMID:38014647)

2022

Asadishekari, M., Mpoyi, E. N., Li, Y., Eslami, J., Walker, M. , Cantini, M. and Gourdon, D. (2022) Three-dimensional tunable fibronectin-collagen platforms for control of cell adhesion and matrix deposition. Frontiers in Physics, 10, 806554. (doi: 10.3389/fphy.2022.806554)

2019

Sun, Z., Feeney, E., Guan, Y., Cook, S. G., Gourdon, D., Bonassar, L. J. and Putnam, D. (2019) Boundary mode lubrication of articular cartilage with a biomimetic diblock copolymer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(25), pp. 12437-12441. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1900716116) (PMID:31164421) (PMCID:PMC6589671)

2015

Seo, B. R. et al. (2015) Obesity-dependent changes in interstitial ECM mechanics promote breast tumorigenesis. Science Translational Medicine, 7(301), 301ra130. (doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3010467) (PMID:26290412) (PMCID:PMC4837896)

Kubow, K. E., Vukmirovic, R., Zhe, L., Klotzsch, E., Smith, M. L., Gourdon, D., Luna, S. and Vogel, V. (2015) Mechanical forces regulate the interactions of fibronectin and collagen I in extracellular matrix. Nature Communications, 6, 8026. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms9026) (PMID:26272817) (PMCID:PMC4539566)

Wang, K., Andresen Eguiluz, R. C., Wu, F., Seo, B. R., Fischbach, C. and Gourdon, D. (2015) Stiffening and unfolding of early deposited-fibronectin increase proangiogenic factor secretion by breast cancer-associated stromal cells. Biomaterials, 54, pp. 63-71. (doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.03.019) (PMID:25907040) (PMCID:PMC4659482)

This list was generated on Fri Apr 25 20:35:47 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles
Number of items: 7.

Articles

Walker, M. , Gourdon, D. and Cantini, M. (2025) Beyond static models: Mechanically dynamic matrices reveal new insights into cancer and fibrosis progression. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 33, 100570. (doi: 10.1016/j.cobme.2024.100570)

Walker, M. , Pringle, E. W., Ciccone, G., Oliver Cervello, L., Tassieri, M. , Gourdon, D. and Cantini, M. (2024) Mind the viscous modulus: the mechanotransductive response to the viscous nature of isoelastic matrices regulates stem cell chondrogenesis. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 13(9), 2302571. (doi: 10.1002/adhm.202302571) (PMID:38014647)

Asadishekari, M., Mpoyi, E. N., Li, Y., Eslami, J., Walker, M. , Cantini, M. and Gourdon, D. (2022) Three-dimensional tunable fibronectin-collagen platforms for control of cell adhesion and matrix deposition. Frontiers in Physics, 10, 806554. (doi: 10.3389/fphy.2022.806554)

Sun, Z., Feeney, E., Guan, Y., Cook, S. G., Gourdon, D., Bonassar, L. J. and Putnam, D. (2019) Boundary mode lubrication of articular cartilage with a biomimetic diblock copolymer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(25), pp. 12437-12441. (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1900716116) (PMID:31164421) (PMCID:PMC6589671)

Seo, B. R. et al. (2015) Obesity-dependent changes in interstitial ECM mechanics promote breast tumorigenesis. Science Translational Medicine, 7(301), 301ra130. (doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3010467) (PMID:26290412) (PMCID:PMC4837896)

Kubow, K. E., Vukmirovic, R., Zhe, L., Klotzsch, E., Smith, M. L., Gourdon, D., Luna, S. and Vogel, V. (2015) Mechanical forces regulate the interactions of fibronectin and collagen I in extracellular matrix. Nature Communications, 6, 8026. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms9026) (PMID:26272817) (PMCID:PMC4539566)

Wang, K., Andresen Eguiluz, R. C., Wu, F., Seo, B. R., Fischbach, C. and Gourdon, D. (2015) Stiffening and unfolding of early deposited-fibronectin increase proangiogenic factor secretion by breast cancer-associated stromal cells. Biomaterials, 54, pp. 63-71. (doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.03.019) (PMID:25907040) (PMCID:PMC4659482)

This list was generated on Fri Apr 25 20:35:47 2025 BST.

Grants

  • Controlling proteins' physics to engineer 3D cell culture platforms. Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship; 2020 - 2025

Supervision

PhD Candidates (as first supervisor)

  • Omolola Ajayi; Engineered tumorous micro-environments
  • Konstantina Soulioti; Multiscale mechanobiology of breast cancer

Teaching

  • [[[ENG2011]]]

Additional information

More information on Delphine Gourdon's research is available at www.gourdonlab.org
 

 


A portrait of Delphine Gourdon