Investigations include testing, monitoring and therapy for soft tissues including skin and muscle. While damage to the heart or lung is often immediately evident when it occurs, that is not the case for damage to soft tissue such as skin or muscle. Loss of tissue function may not be apparent until some time after the damage has occurred. The objective of the research is to improve capability for detecting and predicting those conditions where tissues are at risk. Instrumentation methods focus on noninvasive measurement of tissue properties, including uses of light propagation within tissues and the transport of indicators such as fluorescein dye and hydrogen.
Mechanical measurements look at the viscoelastic properties of the tissue.