The PhD student will work on designing, modelling/simulation, building, and physical/technical characterization and testing of microfluidic platforms for the 3D culture of organoids and bioprinted 3D thyroid models. The PhD candidate will work in a highly multidisciplinary team and in a newly built clean room with top-notch equipment in the field of micro and nanofabrication, material sciences and characterization lab, (3D) cell culture, and live cell microscopy. The work will suit an ambitious candidate who likes a fast-paced, but friendly and collaborative international environment with new challenges and opportunities for growth.

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, bioprinting, and digital light processing;
• Advanced electrospinning technologies for generating extracellular matrix-like fibrous meshes.
• 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 should havea M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering, (bio)physics, biomedical engineering or similar, preferably with already some experience in microfluidics or bioreactor technology.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

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.

Temporary employment for 4 years.
Your salary would be € 2.266,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2.897,- gross per month in the fourth year according to the PhD-student salary scale.

Each year an evaluation will take place.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply.

For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl , Support/UM employees/Employment conditions.

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/

Research in the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine focuses on the development of new and challenging technologies for the repair of damaged organs and tissues. 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. At CTR, we are looking for:

2 PhD Students 

• PhD position in the field of bioprinting (PhD 1) 
• PhD position in the field of microfluidic bioreactors (PhD 2)