Dr Ali Farajpour Ouderji
Postdoctoral Researcher
Adelaide Medical School
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Ali Farajpour graduated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Adelaide in May 2021, working on advanced mathematical elasticity/poroelasticity models. His research interest is in the intersection between biomechanical engineering, machine learning and medical science; there is great potential to use poroelasticity modelling to investigate the biological properties of living cells, tissues and identify early cancers. Ali has worked on the mechanics of different types of materials at various scales, particularly small-scale biological components such as microtubules. In July 2021, Ali joined the Adelaide Medical School as a postdoctoral researcher, where he is gaining practical experience in applying poroelasticity modelling to breast cancer biology for clinical applications. His current research involves the development of a cell-sensitive mathematical model of poroelasticity integrated with machine learning for elastography biomedical imaging.
Global Collaboration
Ali established and led the Global Elasticity Research Collaboration in 2021, leading to three publications and two special issues so far. This collaboration includes Prof. JN Reddy, a distinguished Professor and inaugural holder of the Oscar Wyatt Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, USA.
Supervision Experience
Ali's supervision and leadership experience includes:
- Executive Committee Member of the Early and Mid-Career Researchers (EMCR) Council of Robinson Research Institute of the University of Adelaide
- Mentoring 2 Ph.D. students as co-supervisor and 2 master students as a principal supervisor (Azad University-North Tehran Branch)
- Co-supervisor of two University of Adelaide master’s students.
- Primary supervisor of two University of Adelaide honours students.
- Primary supervision of four Bachelor of Health and Medical Sciences Research Placement students in a group research project in Biomechanics and Cancer Biology.
Ali's current research work in biomechanics:
- Development of higher-order mathematical models of poroelasticity for biological tissues
- Development of machine learning algorithms for biological cell/tissue classification and biomedical imaging
Figure 1a shows the heat map (elastogram image) of breast tissue containing a small cancerous lesion of different sizes (0.1-2 mm). The results are plotted to compare the conventional elastography with his newly developed cell-sensitive poroelastography. Figure 1b indicates the classification outcome of a machine learning model developed to distinguish breast cancer from healthy tissue based on the tissue biomechanical parameters. It is found that cell-sensitive elastography model has great promise to detect breast cancer at a very early stage by taking into account cellular factors that play a role in cancer formation and growth.
The main steps of the cell-sensitive poro-elastography imaging of biological tissues are shown in Figure 2. First, elastography tests are conducted to obtain the displacement and mechanical stress within the tissue, and then the experimental measurements are used in an advanced poroelasticity model to extract the intrinsic biomechanical features that contain important clinical information about the tissue. Finally, a machine learning model is employed to classify the lesion based on its biomechanical features and detect cancer.
2023 Innovation Seed Funding Program, ($50,000), Role: Chief Investigator A, Project title: Elastography imaging for early diagnosis of ovarian fibrosis
2022 FHMS Emerging Leaders Development Grant ($40,000), Role: Chief Investigator A, Project title: Breast cancer and high mammographic density: mechanical and biological correlation
2021 FHMS Strategic Research Support Scheme ($111,400), Role: Chief Investigator B, Project title: Development of a poroelasticity model to detect very early breast cancer
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