Job Description The Neuro-Mechanical Modeling and Engineering Lab (http://bit.ly/NMLab) is seeking for an outstanding post-doctoral 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 robotics, muscle physiology and regenerative medicine (http://bit.ly/NMLTube).
The opening You will develop a robotic system to pace (
i.e., both mechanically and electrically) skeletal muscle tissues engineered
in vitro from human-induced pluripotent stem cells. The envisioned robotic system will enable skeletal tissues to be simultaneously stretched (
i.e., via movable pillars), while receiving electrical stimulation (
i.e., via carbon electrodes). The robot will deliver closed-loop controlled mechanical strain to the tissue under various levels of activation over a period of 4 weeks to study tissue structural remodeling.
Your tasks will be:
- Design and develop the robot for tissue pacing including:
- Selection of biocompatible materials for the robot structure.
- Selection of sensors for closed-loop control, to be compatible with a cell culture incubator, visible light and fluorescence microscopy as well as stimulation electrodes.
- Development of low-level controllers of tissue strain and electrical activation.
- Conduct in vitro experiments, perform tissue handling and analyses (e.g., (immuno)histology, imaging, or qPCR analyses) to assess the efficacy of the robot in promoting muscle tissue growth over a 4-week period. This task will be conducted together with a PhD candidate team member.
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!