Regenerative medicine holds the promise to cure many of what are now chronic patients, restoring health rather than protracting decline, bettering the lives of millions and at the same time preventing lifelong, expensive care processes: cure instead of care. The scientific community has made large steps in this direction over the past decade, however our understanding of the fundamentals of cell, tissue and organ regeneration and of how to stimulate and guide this with intelligent biomaterials in the human body is still in its infancy.  

In order to tackle these challenges, the MERLN Institute for Technology-inspired Regenerative Medicine, focuses on developing novel and challenging technologies to advance the field of tissue and organ repair and regeneration and more specifically, the development of high-throughput material platforms to screen cell-biomaterial interactions. This research project aims at transforming the way we engineer biomaterials by moving away from trial and error to computationally-informed design. At the core of this research project lies high throughput screening of various material platforms developed within the institute, high content image analysis as well as data mining. You will parameterize the biomaterial properties using high throughput analysis, expose the materials to cells, and record the response through high content imaging. Next, you will use machine learning and genetic network modelling to characterize and/or quantify the relations between biomaterial parameters and cell behavior. This knowledge will be used to drive the design process that will bring novel multi-functional biomaterials to interact with the dynamic and multi-scale processes of tissues.

MERLN invites applications for this full-time post-doc position. The candidate will use her/his knowledge at the exciting crossroads of cell biology, imaging and computational modeling. The candidate should have a PhD degree in biomedical engineering, image analysis, computer science or similar fields and have an affinity with regenerative medicine. Outstanding knowledge of scientific English both in speaking and in writing is required.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

The duration of the position and salary will be finalized upon selecting a candidate, but the expectation is for a 18 months full-time position. On top of this, there is an 8% holiday and 8.3% year-end bonus given annually and candidates who need to relocate may be eligible for compensation. The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO-NU). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 16,300 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

cBITE

Research at the MERLN Insitute for Technology-inspired Regenerative Medicine is focused on developing novel and challenging technologies to advance the field of tissue and organ repair and regeneration. Within MERLN, the laboratory for Cell Biology-inspired Tissue Engineering (cBITE, merln.maastrichtuniversity.nl/node/8) focuses on understanding and applying cell biological principles in the field of biomedical engineering, in particular in the regeneration of bone tissue.

http://merln.maastrichtuniversity.nl/node/8