PhD and postdoc opportunities - October/November 2023

DT4Health is an innovative PhD program located at King's, in the heart of London, arising as a joint forces collaboration between the Healthcare Faculties and the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences.

DT4Health is a technology-driven CDT that aims to build multidisciplinary bridges to clinical specialties. The CDT welcomes applications from outstanding candidates from a variety of backgrounds, who are enthusiastic about multi-disciplinary research and training to build the next generation of Digital Twins in healthcare.

More info and application HERE

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PhD position on neuro-musculo-skeletal analysis of human movement in real time including muscle fatigue
University of Coruña

A pre-doctoral contract is offered (former FPI scholarships) at the University of Coruña (Spain), associated with the national project “Capture, reconstruction and neuro-musculo-skeletal analysis of human movement in real time, with consideration of muscle fatigue“, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

This project intends to analyze, in real time, any human movement in progress, obtaining information on not only kinematic magnitudes (position, velocity and acceleration of body segments and points in said segments), but also dynamics (joint torques, external reactions), including those that involve descending to the muscular level (excitations, activations and muscular forces, joint reactions, energetic cost, muscular fatigue). The results of this research are highly applicable in the thematic priority of Health, particularly in healthy exercise, rehabilitation, ergonomics and sport, providing tools for tutoring and activity monitoring (biofeedback), which facilitate the execution of movements according to a certain pattern, the follow-up of the user's evolution, the improvement of his technique, the prevention of injuries, etc.

More info HERE (download pdf)

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Senior postdoctoral researcher in computer methods for European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant O-Health
Prof. Jérôme Noailly - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

4-5-year postdoctoral position for our research line Computer methods for modeling based on finite elements and agents in multiscale simulations, within the context of the O-Health project.

• You will be responsible for the development of the multiscale simulation platform of the O-Health project. This platform shall integrate finite element (organ/tissue level), agent-based (multicellular models) and graph-based (large- or low-scale knowledge projection, single cell) models and solvers.
• You shall focus on the conversion of the physics- and biology-based models created at the BMMB, into interoperable tools within automated simulation flows, for bottom-up and top-down modelling & simulations in O-Health.
• You will define, program and implement the simulation workflows, by using and adapting existing open solutions for interoperability and execution, such as SBML, HDF5 and MUSCLE.
• You will periodically report to the PI, make sure that the project deadlines and deliverables are met, and you are expected to communicate and disseminate adequately your results through the media, and through scientific /medical congresses and journals.

Beyond the project, you shall become gradually responsible for the overall interoperability, reuse and verifiability of the models of the BMMB, according to the FAIR principles. Depending on the performance during the time of the project, professional consolidation at the DTIC will be encouraged.

More info HERE

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PhD position Digital Twins in Healthcare: Credible Personalised Modelling of Orthostatic Hypotension
Faculty of Science, Mathematics & Computer Science - University of Amsterdam

The risk of falling and experiencing major complications increases significantly with age. It is estimated that one-third of individuals aged over 65 fall at least once a year, and among these incidents, 20% result in severe injuries. Orthostatic Hypotension (OH) is one of the most common cardiovascular risk factors for falls.

Tasks and responsibilities:
In this project you will enhance the generalised cardiovascular models and develop "personalised" models capable of predicting the fall risk of a person at an early stage. You will perform sensitivity analysis and inverse uncertainty quantification to parameterise the model based on stratified clinical data sets, followed by validation studies on other datasets. Drawing from detailed time-resolved beat-to-beat measurements of blood pressure, cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxygenation taken from individual patients, you will personalise the models. Finally, the short-time dynamics model will be coupled to the long-time clinical predictions of the risk of the patient to experience the OH-related falls in the next years by using statistical and AI-based models. For more information, please see here and references therein.

Your experience and profile:

• Master's degree in Computational science, Computer science, Bioinformatics, or related field;
• Programming skills (with Python as preferred programming language);
• Fluent in written and spoken English, as demonstrated by either a MSc degree in English or a certificate of the language proficiency tests (TOEFL, Academic IELTS, or Cambridge).
• Knowledge of hypotension physiological processes is not required, but would be a bonus.

Closing date: 30 November 2023

More info and application HERE