Dr Roberto Leonardo

Profile

I am a mechanical engineer working in biomechanics. My research integrates experimental and computational biomechanics to improve the understanding of joint function, joint kinematics, tissue characterisation and the pre-clinical evaluation of surgical procedures. I have worked with most of human joints, investigating alterations in movement, joint loading patterns, and the resultant damage caused by these variations. I have developed experimental tools and protocols for tribological testing and soft-tissue characterisation, along with finite element models that replicate physiological kinematics to investigate tissue deficiencies and surgical interventions.

My research at the iMBE focuses on the knee and hip joints. In the hip joint, I investigate the acetabular cartilage degradation in hemi-arthroplasty cases with the use of an anatomical hip simulator. Study cases include mismatch in the selection of femoral head implants, and the geometric variations that lead to joint impingement. In the knee joint, I primarly develop subject-specific finite element models that simulate joint kinematics, as well as probabilistic tools to reconstruct soft-tissue structures when direct retrieval from clinical images is not possible. To find out more about the Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering's research, visit imbe.leeds.ac.uk .

I have worked across leading universities in the UK, US and Mexico, collaborating in multi-disciplinary groups with clinitians, surgeons, engineers, biologists, and industry partners. I was responsible for the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. I worked with natural tissue producing research on multiple topics including spine fusion, pedicle screws, osteochondritis dissecans on the knee, and kinematics of shoulder and knee due to ligament deficiency. Also, I worked on characterising human tissues and the performance assessment of prosthetic devices.

I have also developed FE models of the hip to investigate the effect of cup over-insertion and cohesive models to simulate the removal of implants.

I obtained my PhD at the University of Manchester in 2020 by investigating "The performance evaluation of surgical techniques for treatment of scapholunate instability in a type II wrist". This research was completed using subject-specific finite element models to simulate multibody kinematics of the carpal bones.

Research interests

Clinical Biomechanics, Orthopaedics, Experimental Simulation, Computational biomechanics, and Medical Implants.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Materials Science
• Master of Engineering in Mechanical Design (Hons)
• BSc in Mechanical Engineering

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering