Pelvic organ prolapse (POP), a condition in which abdominal organs descend within the body, occurs in more than half of the adult women above the age of forty. POP can be reduced by either surgery or a pessary. However, prolapse has a recurrence rate of 30-50% after surgery and if a pessary does not properly fit, patients may develop severe complications.

The aim of this project is to visualize the way both pessary and surgery influence the pelvic floor anatomy in patients by performing upright MR imaging before and after these therapies. This will help selecting the optimal surgery type and might enable a personalized pessary design.

You will become part of the Magnetic Detection and Imaging group at the University of Twente. The group is relatively young and contains many enthusiastic researchers trying to couple technological research to clinical practice. For the prolapse research we have strong collaborations with hospitals in Hengelo, Enschede and RadboudUMC in Nijmegen.

You should be an enthusiastic researcher with the ability to communicate with medical experts in the hospital and also have a strong interest in research. You should possess the capacity to work both independently and in close collaboration with others. Therefore, you should also be proficient in both Dutch and English.

A Master’s degree in biomedical engineering, technical medicine, physics or other related fields is a requirement for this position. Next to that, a candidate should ideally have experience with MRI, image analysis and computer programming. Since the project deals with handling patients, patient inclusion and writing METC proposals, affinity with clinical work is also very beneficial.

INFORMATION AND APPLICATION

If you are interested in filling the vacancy, please upload your CV, a half-page summary of master/diploma thesis, a letter of motivation which states your research experience and interests by using the application button below.  

Additional information about the PhD position can be obtained by contacting dr.ir. Frank Simonis at f.f.j.simonis @utwente.nl.

The assignment will be for four years, with a go/no go assessment at six and twelve months.

The gross monthly salary starts with € 2.325, in the first year and increases to € 2.972,- in the fourth year of your employment. Additionally, the University of Twente provides excellent facilities for professional and personal development, a holiday allowance of 8% and an end of year bonus of 8.3%.

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

Within the TNW Faculty (Faculty of Science & Technology) of the University of Twente some 700 staff members and 2000 students are involved in training and research on the interface of chemical technology, applied physics and biomedical technology. Fields of application include sustainable energy, process technology and materials science, nanotechnology and technical medicine. Research, which enjoys a high profile both at home and internationally, has been accommodated in the multidisciplinary research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centra and Digital Society Institute. The faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders.