Job Description Are you interested in laying down the basis for developing breakthrough regenerative robotic technologies for restoring movement following neuromuscular injuries such as stroke? Are you passionate about investigating how skeletal muscles remodel their biological structure when exposed to electrical and mechanical stimuli over multiple weeks? Are you interested in doing so by combining advanced
in vitro techniques for tissue-engineering muscles from human induced pluripotent stem cells together with computational modelling techniques?
The Neuro-Mechanical Modeling and Engineering Lab is seeking for an outstanding PhD candidate fellow to work within our new Project ROBOREACTOR funded by the prestigious European Research Council (Consolidator Grant). You will join an international team working on a novel and ambitious project at the frontiers of muscle neurophysiology,
muscle tissue regeneration and regenerative robotics.
The Opening We are also looking for someone who will design four-week eccentric training protocols for pacing the tissue-engineered muscles and analyze how these tissues remodel their morphology over time
e.g., genesis of sarcomeres (
i.e., in parallel and in series), phenotype (
i.e., fiber type transition between fast and slow types), and changes in tissue force-generating capacity.
We are also looking for somebody who can learn to use computational modelling to predict how tissue-engineered muscles remodel during the 4-week eccentric training.
Your Tasks - Design and conduct 4-week in vitro experiments on tissue-engineered skeletal muscle to mimic eccentric muscle training, incorporating both electrical and mechanical pacing.
- To characterize structural remodelling in the tissue-engineered muscles. This implies the ability of characterizing changes in tissue force-generating capacity, morphology, phenotype and myotrophic factors.
- Use the gathered data to establish computational models of muscle structural remodelling.
Your work will be facilitated by in-house expertise and mentorship. You will collaborate with top-scientists on aspects including muscle-on-a-chip and statistical modelling, giving large opportunity to perform impactful research!