One Post-doc fellow will engage in the development and assessment of a 3D in vitro model for full-thickness skin. The model will have to be assessed for its functionality by a number of physical, mechanical, biochemical, imaging and histological assays.

One Post-doc fellow will engage in the development and assessment of a vascular graft for the regeneration of the coronary artery. The construct will have to be assessed for its functionality by a number of physical, mechanical, biochemical, imaging and histological assays.

The candidates will have a proven outstanding record to be part of an exceptionally skilled team that is being assembled thanks to recent regional, industrial, and EU funding secured by the department.

Research at CTR is driven by technology development for the fabrication of biological constructs. The technological bases at the department for the fabrication of such constructs are:

• Additive manufacturing technologies for building functional 3D scaffolds, such as 3D fiber deposition;
• Advanced electrospinning technologies for generating extracellular matrix-like fibrous meshes.
• Bioprinting technologies spanning from bioplotting to ink-jet biprinting and microfluidic based systems for the fabrication of 3D in vitro models.
• Fabrication of highly functional film-based biomedical microdevices by micro and nanoscale 3D forming and superimposed patterned surface and bulk modification of thin polymer films;
• Engineering of artificial cellular microenvironments and of in vitro 3D tissue and organ analogues using the aforementioned 3D film micro- and nanotechnologies
• Lithography for multiscale hierarchical 3D substrates, e.g. 3D nanoimprint, 3D deep UV or 3D X-ray lithography.
• Bottom-up tissue engineering based on micro and nanoengineered objects as cell-assemblable instructive microscaffolds.
• Scaffold-free, self-assembled 3D tissues/organ spheroids.

Candidates for the post-doc position on skin should have a Ph.D. degree in biofabrication, biology, or biomedical engineering.

Candidates for the post-doc position on vascular regeneration should have a Ph.D. degree in Biofabrication, biomedical engineering, or chemical engineering.

For both positions, candidates should have already proven experience in regenerative medicine and affinity with biofabrication technologies such as additive manufacturing, bioprinting, and electrospinning. Candidates will also have to have proven experience with cell culture. Excellent and proven knowledge of scientific English both in speaking, reading, and writing is required.

We offer a top-level research and academic environment with excellent opportunities for personal development. The work is highly interdisciplinary and the atmosphere in the group as well at the institute is collegial and collaborative.

Both full-time positions are offered for 1 year initially, and can be extended for an additional 1 year, after a yearly evaluation. The candidates are expected to disseminate the results through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at international conferences. The starting salary will be about € 2476 and subjected the candidate experience. On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance. The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO), supplemented with local MU provisions. For more information, look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl, employees, A-Z.

MERLN Institute, Maastricht University

Maastricht University (UM) is renowned for its unique and innovative problem based learning (PBL), characterized by small scale and student oriented approach. With 16,000 students and 4,000 staff, UM offers a wide choice of academic programs. UM can easily call itself the most international university in the Netherlands, with 45% of our students and more than 30% of our staff are from abroad.

Research in the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, part of the UM, focuses on the development of new and challenging technologies for the repair of damaged organs and tissues.

Department of Complex Tissue Regeneration (CTR)

Within MERLN, the CTR department (http://merln.maastrichtuniversity.nl/content/complex-tissue-regeneration-ctr) focuses on advanced macro, micro and nanobiofabrication technologies developed and combined with fundamental knowledge of (developmental) biology to design and engineer complex tissues and organs. Potential applications of such constructs are in stem cell research, developmental biology, cancer research, pharmaceutical or toxicological screening, tissue regeneration, and bioartificial organs.