Two doctoral students in Biomedical Engineering with focus on mechanobiological modeling - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Subject description

Biomedical engineering comprises theoretical and experimental activities based in engineering and addressing issues tied to medicine and biology.

Mechanobiological modeling of regeneration and degeneration of soft musculoskeletal tissues- General description: The research in the biomechanics group is focused on understanding the link between mechanics and biology in the musculoskeletal system, including related pathologies and repair of skeletal tissues. Experimental studies, tissue characterisation, imaging and computational simulation techniques are used. The research is applied to problems in orthopaedics to develop better methods to understand and improve repair of musculoskeletal tissues.

Soft musculoskeletal tissues (knee joint tissues and tendons) all connect or transmit forces during movement in the body. Despite having specialized mechanical functions and tailored microstructures, they present with a similar gross composition based on a collagen network, small amounts of proteoglycans, and an extensive amount of water. In these projects we are looking to develop adaptive computational models of how the tissues respond and adapt to mechanical loading over time, and specifically how mechanical stimulation affects the tissue’s regenerative capacity after damage and the degenerative degradation in response to injury. We are looking for 2 PhD students to be dedicated to the following projects:

Project 1:  Tendons connect muscles to bones and enable energy-efficient locomotion. The Achilles tendon is the largest and the most injured tendon in the human body. Ruptures often occur during recreational sport activities but can also be a result of ageing. Mechanical loading is a prerequisite for tendon healing. Controversial and often unsuccessful treatments of tendon ruptures could be improved by elucidating how loading affects the mechanobiological aspects of tendon healing. This position is within a larger project with the scope to elucidate how mechanical loading affects tendon regeneration.

The aim for PhD student 1 is to investigate how mechanical loading influences healing tendon function, structure and composition. The project includes to further develop and validate an existing adaptive mechanoregulatory model for tendon repair. This will be conducted based on collected experimental data from ongoing studies. The developed computational mechanobiological scheme will be key in the project to elucidate the mechanobiological mechanisms at play.

PhD student 1 would be actively working within the group and with collaborators within the TENDON_MECHBIO project funded by the European Research Council.

Project 2: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disease affecting over 40 million Europeans. The number of patients with OA will increase by over 70% in developed countries during the next 20 years, while direct and indirect costs are estimated to increase by over 300%. The most cost-effective and helpful treatment for the disease would simply be prevention. Since the progression of OA is highly subject-specific, prevention of the disease can only be possible when the progression can be predicted for an individual patient. The position is within a project with the overall aim to develop a tool to predict the onset and progression of osteoarthritis in the knee joint tissues due to daily loading conditions. The consortium will combine patient-specific motion analysis and computational modelling approaches for OA diagnostics, personalized prediction, and optimal treatment.  

The goal for PhD student 2 is to develop and implement constitutive material models and mechanobiological adaptive models of knee joint tissues in a finite element based mechanobiological framework of the knee. The framework will be validated against tissue specific experimental and clinical data available within the collaborative network and overall prediction of tissue degeneration during OA. 

PhD student 2 would be actively working with international collaborators within the MathKOA project funded by NovoNordisk Foundation.

Approach: Both projects include designing and developing numerical framework, followed by simulations and data analysis. Understanding and utilizing experimentally available data is important.

Work duties

The main duties of doctoral students are to devote themselves to their research studies which includes participating in research projects and third cycle courses. The work duties can also include teaching and other departmental duties (no more than 20%).

Detailed description of the work duties, such as:

• The research includes designing, planning and performing numerical studies within the projects described above.
• The doctoral student is expected to assist in supervision of MSc degree projects
• The project is a close collaboration with national or international partners and the doctoral student is expected to actively interact as a team member.

Admission requirements

A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if he or she:

• has been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
• has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second cycle, or
• has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

A person meets the specific admission requirements for third cycle studies in Biomedical Engineering if he or she has:

• at least 45 second-cycle credits of relevance to the subject

Additional requirements:

• Very good oral and written proficiency in English.
• The candidate should have a background in (bio)mechanical engineering, (medical)physics engineering, or other relevant fields.
• The candidate should be able to independently drive his/her own research project, as well as writing scientific publications.
• The candidate should be able to supervise younger researchers.

Assessment criteria

Selection for third-cycle studies is based on the student’s potential to profit from such studies. The assessment of potential is made primarily on the basis of academic results from the first and second cycle. Special attention is paid to the following:

1. Knowledge and skills relevant to the thesis project and the subject of study.
2. An assessment of ability to work independently and to formulate and tackle research problems.
3. Written and oral communication skills
4. Other experience relevant to the third-cycle studies, e.g. professional experience.

Other assessment criteria:

• Knowledge in constitutive modelling and the finite element method is important.
• Knowledge in biomechanics, preferably musculoskeletal soft tissues, is considered positive.
• Experience from modelling biological tissue in the human body is considered positive.
• Experience with simulation software for material modeling (e.g.  Abaqus), and scientific programming (e.g. Matlab, Python, C++) is considered positive.
• Experience from multidisciplinary environments is considered positive.
• International experience is considered positive.

Consideration will also be given to good collaborative skills, drive and independence, and how the applicant, through his or her experience and skills, is deemed to have the abilities necessary for successfully completing the third cycle programme.

Conditions
Only those admitted to third cycle studies may be appointed to a doctoral studentship. Third cycle studies at LTH consist of full-time studies for 4 years. A doctoral studentship is a fixed-term employment of a maximum of 5 years (including 20% departmental duties). Doctoral studentships are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance (1998:80).

Instructions on how to apply

Applications shall be written in English and include a cover letter stating the reasons why you are interested in the position and in what way the research project corresponds to your interests and educational background. The application must also contain a CV, degree certificate or equivalent, and other documents you wish to be considered (grade transcripts, contact information for your references, letters of recommendation, etc.).