Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted into the blood, and can inform us about the state of their cells of origin, and by extension, about the presence and progression of diseases. Unfortunately, their detection is still imperfect due to the ultra-small size (50-200 nm) of most of them.

In the project "PHOtonic integrated OCT-enhanced flow cytometry for canceR and cardiovascular diagnostics enabled by Extracellular VEsicles discrimination" PHOREVER we will develop a disruptive multi-sensing platform that will enable for the first time the reliable detection of EVs with size down to 80 nm, the detection of EVs with specific biomarkers (proteins) on their surface, and the calculation of the corresponding EV concentrations in the blood.

The project is a collaboration with university and industrial partners in Europe. Within this consortium different experimental setups will be built and validated. The key components will be photonic integrated circuits in TriPleX and the 3 microfluidic chips, which will be integrated as a compact point-of-care device. The task of the PhD student will lie in advancing all these areas. The candidate will thus build and validate experimental setups, help advance theoretical efforts and their experimental validation.

About your role

• You will work as a PhD student for 4 years on the EU project PHOREVER, together with team members from the AMC and the EU partners that are involved in the project.
• You will help to design and validate the flow customer in a chip, will validate the first prototypes and will work on the improvement of the signal analysis.
• This project will result in several peer reviewed publications, presentations at (inter)national conferences and normally in a PhD degree.

• A master's degree in physics, photonics, engineering, biomedical technology, or other relevant degree with an interest in medical devices.
• Affinity with engineering
• Affinity with (biomedical) optics and photonics
• Affinity with programming
• Good communicative skills
• Team player

• A flying start to your career in research work.
• All the space for your drive to shape the care of tomorrow.
• Working on large-scale and own research, with motivated colleagues from all corners of the world.
• The position is for 4 years. We first offer a fixed term contract for 1 year, which under normal circumstances will be prolonged with 3 years.
• Salary range is 2.789 - €3.536 euro Gross in full-time employment. The monthly wage will increase yearly.
• In addition to a good basic salary, we offer 8.3% end-of-year bonus and 8% holiday allowance.
• Pension is accrued at Be Frank.
• In addition, we have sufficient parking spaces at the AMC location and a good bicycle arrangement.
• An active personnel association and the Young Amsterdam UMC association, both of which organise fun (sports) activities and events.

Amsterdam UMC

You will work in the Vesicle Observation Center, a collaboration between the Biomedical Engineering & Physics department and the Laboratory of Experimental Clinical Chemistry in Amsterdam UMC, location AMC. Supervision will be given by Ton van Leeuwen, Edwin van der Pol and Rienk Nieuwland. This group has outstanding knowledge of the detection of extracellular vesicles based on light scattering and fluorescence measured by flow cytometry, see e.g. https://www.edwinvanderpol.com.

The research group, consisting of postdocs, PhD students and technical support, hosts researchers from a wide variety of fields, from physics, biochemistry, artificial intelligence to various medical disciplines. This interdisciplinary environment is an excellent launching platform for novel technologies into clinical practice - from bench to bedside. It is also an excellent launching place for your career in science or industry.