PhD and postdoc opportunities - February 2024

PhD Position in Clinical Simulations for Brain Aneurysm Treatment
Faculty of Science - University of Amsterdam

The Computational Science Lab at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a PhD Research Position, centering on the development and validation of simulation tools aimed at revolutionizing planning strategies for clinical interventions, particularly focusing on the non-invasive treatment of brain aneurysms. This position situates within a vibrant research group that maintains a broad scientific collaboration network, including several clinical institutes, experimental groups, and supercomputing centers across Europe.

Project: Simulating Clinical Interventions in Brain Aneurysm Treatment

Aim: Develop and validate high-fidelity simulation tools designed to optimize planning, prediction, and decision-making processes related to clinical interventions in treating brain aneurysms, utilizing in-depth in silico solutions within the framework of the Virtual Human Twin.

Tasks and key responsibilities:

• Developing a simulation tool that assists in planning and predicting various treatment scenarios for brain aneurysms;
• Validating the simulation and applying uncertainty quantification to enhance fidelity and enable patient-specific utilization;
• Applying and combining methodologies from computational fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, and mathematical optimization;
• Collaborating with both local and international partners (this includes clinical, experimental, and computational partners) to maintain the comprehensiveness and applicability of the research;
• Participate in education, based on mutual agreement (assisting in one of our courses or supervising student thesis projects).

Closing date: 29 February 2024

More info and application HERE

10 PhD positions in the Europe Horizon Marie Skłodowska-Curie Project REBONE

REBONE is about to open 10 fully funded PhD positions to construct a platform of computational tools that will enable clinical experts to produce customized bone graft substitutes for the treatment of critical-size bone defects. This innovation will ensure that an ideal treatment solution is found on a patient-specific basis in terms of:

• mechanical and mechano-biological performance,
• surgical implantability, and
• manufacturing process reliability

List of available PhD positions:

• Methods for optimization of bone-substitute architectures (Politecnico di Milano, Italy);
• Micro- and macro-mechanical characterization of materials and devices and in-silico Models (Politecnico di Milano, Italy);
• 3D printing technologies for Glass-Ceramic and Glass-Ceramic-based composite BTE scaffolds (Politecnico di Torino, Italy);
• Tissue-scaffold biological interaction (Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy)
• Design of bone inspired scaffolds and biomechanical characterization of the bone-scaffold construct (Université de Liege, Belgium)
• Industrial process for glass-ceramic device manufacturing through VPP (Lithoz GmbH, Austria)
• Characterization of fracture relevant bone sites for information on the structural/compositional requirements of the implant (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Austria)
• Models for Tissue growth and fundamental relationships with micro-architecture of scaffolds (University of Salzburg, Austria)
• Biomimetic in vitro culture models for evaluation of novel bone substitute implants (University of Belgrade, RS)
• Mixed reality for planning of implant surgery for bone defects of irregular shapes (MEDAPP SPÓŁKA AKCYJNA, Poland)

Deadline for online application: 01/03/2024

More info and application HERE

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Computational Design and Performance Simulation of Bioabsorbable Metallic EMD
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain - IMDEA Materials, Madrid, Spain - Meotec GmbH, Aachen, Germany

The project will develop a computational optimization framework to identify the optimum parameters for candidate stent designs (e.g., number, size, and shape of struts, surface treatments) to tailor the temporally evolving load-bearing capacities of devices. Numerical tools will be used to predict short-term performance and this will be coupled with a physicallybased phase-field framework to account for surface corrosion.

The objectives of this project are:

1. Develop an in silico finite element framework to enable virtual bench testing of stent structures through prediction of functional properties, such as crimp, deployment, recoil, foreshortening, radial strength and bending.

2. Implement a surface-based corrosion model through phase-field modelling to enable prediction of spatial and temporal progression of corrosion of stent structures that will enable quantification of how mechanical properties evolve over time (e.g. virtual corrosion testing).

3. Validate the developed framework against the experimental results provided by DC5.

More info and application, see DC6 HERE

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Biomedical Data Scientist
Biomedical Engineering - Eindhoven University of Technology

The Research Center for Materials-Driven Regeneration (MDR) is a partnership between Eindhoven University of Technology, Maastricht University and Utrecht University, University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute. This consortium was brought together to advance tissue and organ regeneration approaches with the use of instructive biomaterials.

Responsibilities of a data scientist in an acaemic research environment:

• Consider the various ways data sets are created, collected, analyzed, visualized and stored in the different disciplines.
• Define a data architecture that brings out the best of the collective data sets (or investigate how we can) and is attractive for MDR scientists to use and improve, and that provides handles to answer faithfully and robustly some of the scientific questions of the consortium.
• Showcase the added value and power (if any) of data science in this multidisciplinary arena to the scientific community by active participation in ongoing research projects of MDR members.
• Consider/discuss/investigate/question the ethical aspects, the legal aspects, and the intellectual ownership of a complex data set owned by many scientists, across disciplines and universities.
• Deal with the logistics (location, costs, access routes, etc) of the MDR data sets.
• Enable and promote the archiving, storage and managing of research data according to academic FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) principles.
• Couple data architecture and enabled FAIR principles to the broader university infrastructure applicable for the full BME department.

Deadline 31 March 2024

More info and application HERE

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Medical Data Scientist Programme
The Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine

As part of the Career Development Programme, the central goal of the Medical Data Scientist Programme is to foster participating scientists’ development into group or laboratory leaders in the field of medical research. The program is designed for post-doctoral scientists with above-average qualifications who are applying for a research position in the fields of medical informatics, medical bioinformatics, digitalization in medicine, or the medical data sciences at the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine.

Up to two research positions in the form of Medical Data Scientist Fellowships with a protected research period of a maximum of three years will be awarded. The Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine will fund a total of two years of full-time research. One additional year must be funded by the host clinic or institute.

Deadline: Monday, April 15, 2024, 12:00 p.m.

More information and application HERE

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PhD Position Mechanobiology of Myocardial Tissue
Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering - TU Delft

Heart failure is a progressive chronic condition where cardiac tissue undergoes detrimental changes in structure and function across multiple scales in time and space. To improve our understanding of this highly disabling disease, we urgently require an improved mechanistic understanding of the relationship between myocardial tissue’s microstructural organization and its macroscale mechanical behavior.

In this project, you will combine advanced optical imaging and biomechanical tissue testing techniques with state-of-the-art human disease modeling platforms to characterize and track the microstructural-to-macromechanical kinetics of growth and remodeling. You will work together with an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the interface of mechanobiology, imaging physics, computer vision, and cardiothoracic modeling. Your research will be part of a greater and exciting effort aimed at the development of predictive cardiovascular digital twins that enable individualized medical treatment therapy optimization for complex, multifactorial cardiovascular disorders (part of the Horizon Europe VITAL consortium).

Deadline: 31 March 2024

More info and application HERE

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The challenge in building a medical digital twin primarily lies in bringing together expertise. As a comprehensive, high-ranking university with a leading hospital, KU Leuven and UZ Leuven are ideally positioned to (lay the groundwork for) realizing such medical digital twins. Both institutions have joined forces and committed to building a platform for medical digital twins, pioneering the medicine of the future. Several KU Leuven institutes (including iSiHealth, Leuven.AI, and DigiSoc) will play significant roles, with interactions with experts from industrial digital twins (e.g., within Flanders.Make) reinforcing efforts. While KU Leuven and UZ Leuven invest in the development of a medical digital twin, this remains an exceptionally ambitious project that is not achievable without additional investments.

Responsibilities

• Providing support to secure funding for this project by identifying (public/private) financing opportunities, engaging with potential funders and (internal) stakeholders, and assisting in preparing a concrete funding application dossier. This includes scientific and technological aspects as well as project and budget planning.
• Coordinating existing initiatives by establishing a knowledge platform: several smaller projects have already been initiated by individual researchers, often without the knowledge of their colleagues. Making these initiatives known within the institution and facilitating knowledge sharing among the involved researchers can add value by aligning resource allocation.

Deadline 14 March 2024

More info and application HERE

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Research Associate in Sleep-Disordered Breathing
University of Sheffield - Faculty of Engineering - Department of Computer Science

The role offers you the opportunity to contribute to the design and implementation of a smartphone-based solution for monitoring paediatric sleep health, by playing a key part in sleep breathing data collection and processing, advancing multimodal AI algorithms, and evaluation. You will work closely with the hospital team for data collection and processing. Through association with Insigneo Institute and Healthy Lifespan Institute (HELSI), you will also have opportunities to expand your professional network in healthcare.

You will hold (or be close to completion of) a PhD in Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, or a related area with a track record in signal processing, deep learning, and multimodal data analysis. As you will be responsible for processing sleep disordered breathing sound data, a good understanding of audio processing would be an advantage. Experience in developing solutions for healthcare applications, particularly in the realm of sleep disorders, is highly desirable.

We are seeking a motivated Research Associate to join our team and apply their skills in machine learning and multimodal analysis to develop innovative mobile health solutions for diagnosing sleep disorders in children.

Deadline: 22 March 2024

More info and application HERE