The 27th Congress of ESB will be held in Porto, Portugal. The congress will take place at the Alfandega Porto Congress Center, situated in the heart of Porto’s historic city centre, from 26-29 June 2022.
For more information esbiomech2022.org.
We are looking forward to receiving your contributions and to welcoming you at ESB2022 in Porto!
Description:
Amputee cases increase due to vascular diseases between elderly people, and mainly due to traffic accidents or war injuries in younger people. A prosthetic socket is the critical interface between a person’s body and their prosthetic device. Prosthetic sockets are traditionally made by rigid materials, which are not thermoregulatory and cause irritations, wounds and ulcerations. Hence, amputee comfort is still a challenging research field.
This position offers the possibility of researching in innovative lattice structures to design and optimise traditional sockets, and hence improve quality of life of the increasing young amputee population in the world.
Department:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials of Tecnun, the Engineering School of the University of Navarra. During the PhD, the student will have the opportunity to do a placement at a foreign university or research center. The research project will be carried out in collaboration with the Clinica Universidad de Navarra.
Requirements:
– Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering or similar degrees.
– Language: Highly proficient in English.
– Software: Finite Element software (ABAQUS), basic programming in Matlab, Python, Computer Aided Design software (Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, CREO).
– To have initiative for research.
Offered:
Tecnun, the Engineering School of the University of Navarra offers a 4-year doctoral contract at the Technological Campus in San Sebastian (Spain).
Thesis should be completed in 4 years.
Start date: As soon as possible.
Documentation:
Send the following documentation by email to alopez@unav.es: cover letter describing your motivation as a thesis candidate; updated CV; undergraduate and Master’s degree transcripts.
The department of Cell Biology-Inspired Tissue Engineering (cBITE) at the MERLN Institute for Technologyinspired Regenerative Medicine at Maastricht University in the Netherlands invites applications for a postdoctoral position. The post-doctoral researcher will perform cutting-edge research in computational modeling methods applied to drug-toxin interactions in the kidney. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the top ten causes of death worldwide. Gradual decline in kidney function leads to accumulation of metabolic waste products (toxins) normally excreted by the kidneys, contributing to progression of CKD and its comorbidities, in particular cardiovascular disease. To alleviate the CKD complications, patients are routinely treated with many drugs, such as antihypertensive and cholesterol-lowering agents. However, the transporter proteins in kidney cells that handle these drugs are also responsible for secreting the toxins, and may, therefore, not be able to handle the competing demands. Considering the multitude of CKD drugs, toxins and transporter proteins and their potential interactions, investigating drug-toxin interactions is experimentally time consuming and difficult to accomplish. In this project, funded by the Dutch Kidney Foundation (https://nierstichting.nl/), we propose to integrate computational and experimental expertise with state-of-the-art technologies to address investigate drug-toxin interactions in the kidney and improve CKD drug treatments.
Project description:
Application deadline: 29 June 2023
More information:
Institutes: Queensland University of Technology (QUT, Australia), and University of Paris Est Creteil (UPEC, France) — Multiscale modeling and simulation lab (MSME UMR 8208 CNRS).
Supervisors: Prof. Peter Pivonka (QUT, peter.pivonka@qut.edu.au) and Prof. Vittorio Sansalone (MSME UPEC, vittorio.sansalone@u-pec.fr)
Résumé: We seek to better understand how cortical bone is affected by osteoporosis and drug treatments. The successful PhD candidate will develop state-of-the-art computational models of bone remodeling to predict changes in cortical porosity and bone matrix properties due to osteoporosis and other treatment regimens. The in-silico results will be validated by experimental data provided by Prof David Cooper (USASK). Project areas include:
• Development of continuous, i.e. based on partial differential equations, models of bone remodeling to investigate the behaviour of basic multicellular units (BMUs) in cortical bone;
• Development of discrete, i.e. cellular automata based, models of BMU behaviour in cortical bone;
• Development of multiscale models of bone remodeling and adaptation that are able to predict changes in cortical porosity and bone tissue mineral density distribution.
Closing date: Applications will be accepted until the scholarship is awarded, but applications will be assessed starting June 25th, 2023.
More information (salary, essential and desirable criteria, etc.):
The biomechanics group at Lund University, Sweden, is looking for a PhD student to investigate hip biomechanics using statistical shape models. This is a fully funded PhD position and applications must be sent through the official recruitment portal: https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:630169/?lang=en.
Deadline: June 23rd, 2023
More information:
Please find below the brochure for a new Master’s course (2nd year) to be opened at Lyon 1 University in 2023. This is an international course, intended to welcome foreign students (teaching in English) of a good level, wishing to learn about research in the field of the musculoskeletal system (in the broad sense). Scholarships are provided to students and a great emphasis is placed on immersion in the research laboratories.
Application deadline: June 19, 2023.
SKAIROS is a deeptech startup which aim is to translate subject specific finite element spine models to the real life, to help for spinal implants design and surgery planning.
More information on the two job descriptions:
This is an offer for a PhD topic at Univ Eiffel in Lyon France in collaboration with major industrial partners:
Title: Towards a more equitable protection of vehicle occupants: combining human body models and metamodeling techniques to improve safety
Start date: October 2023.
Keywords: Biomechanics, Finite element modelling and simulation, Metamodeling, Machine learning
Academic environment and work place: Laboratory of Biomechanics and Impact Mechanics, Univ. Eiffel, Lyon France
Industrial partners: Autoliv (Gothenburg, Sweden), LAB PSA Renault (Nanterre, France).
See document for details and contact information:
The call includes 14 positions. We have four projects in the field of Biomechanics:
#2 Towards digital diagnosis: models for the evaluation of the intervertebral disc (supervisor: prof. Luca Cristofolini)
#3 Prevention of vertebral fractures: digital diagnosis and computational modelling of vertebrae affected by metastasis (supervisor: prof. Luca Cristofolini)
#4 Digital twins to prevent the risk of joint replacement failure in patients affected by neurodegenerative disorders (supervisor: prof. Marco Viceconti)
#5 Digital twins informed by wearable sensors to predict joint loads in the real world (supervisor: prof. Marco Viceconti)
All the positions are within the PhD program in Health and Technology, a highly interdisciplinary program which includes supervisors from the different domains. The call is closing on 20 June, to start on 1st November 2023.
https://www.unibo.it/en/teaching/phd/2023-2024/health-and-technologies
More information:
Research Project
O-Health is a Consolidator grant from the European Research Council, awarded by the European Commission under the HORIZON Action. It is led by Prof. Jérôme Noailly, from the BCN MedTech research unit of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) that involve load-bearing organs emerge silently according to complex mechanisms that are likely to involve inter-disease systemic communications. Clinical explorations cannot apprehend such intricate emergence, O-Health postulates that multiscale in silico models can. Digital twin technologies for health have progressed a lot in the last decades, but multi-disease transversal modelling at the body scale is yet to be developed. It requires to couple small to large-scale model components with appropriate balance of phenomenological and mechanistic approaches, to cope with overwhelming biological complexity, preserve interpretability and incorporate real-world data. This is the niche of O-Health that proposes a scalable ecosystem of multiscale NCD models interrelated through a body-wide systemic model of low-grade inflammation. The project tackles such vertical and transversal physiology-based computational modelling through four major NCD, lung emphysema, atherosclerosis, intervertebral disc degeneration and knee osteoarthritis that affect load-bearing organs at different anatomical locations. Each NCD model will vertically share predicted variables with an interface model of endothelial cell dysfunction that communicates with a transversal model of body-wide systemic communications. The O-health ecosystem shall be modular and interoperable. Models and simulations will combine finite element models at the organ /tissue scales and systems biology models at lower scales, with machine learning models for the incorporation of real-world data out of population cohorts. Interoperability shall be ensured through declarative standard languages such as Field and Systems Biology Mark-up Languages.
Description of the position
The successful Candidate will be a senior postdoctoral researcher, with proven experience in data science and machine learning. He/She will be based at DTIC, UPF and will be responsible for the management and mining of health data collected for the O-Health project, out of existing patient and population cohorts. Scientific and technical competencies are necessary in interpretable machine learning, nonlinear unsupervised learning, as well as in federated and transfer learning. Advanced programming skills and experience in handling health and/or biomedical data are required. Knowledge of data management plans will be valued. The Researcher will become progressively responsible for the data science operations of the BMMB, to properly mine real-world health data and couple the latter to the physics- and biology-based models, developed by the other researchers of the group for interpretable predictive modelling. While a high level of independence is expected, (s)he shall report periodically to PI, to ensure (i) that the timelines of the project and deliverables are met, and (ii) that the project results can be properly disseminated through scientific and medical congresses and journals. As such, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills will be chiefly important.
More information:
Project
BONE STRENGTH is a public-private collaboration project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) and Agency of Research (AEI) that focusses on the prediction of fragile bone fractures in osteoporosis, out of routine clinical explorations. The collaboration will take place between the technology-based company 3D Shaper Medical SL, and the Barcelona Centre for New Medical Technologies (BCN MedTech) of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Both 3D Shaper Medical SL and UPF are in Barcelona, Spain.
Osteoporosis is a disease associated with the occurrence of fragile fractures in the elderly population, resulting in a huge burden on the society and the healthcare system. The current clinical gold standard for fracture risk assessment is based on areal bone mineral density (aBMD) measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. However, it fails to identify up to 50% of the patients eligible for bone-specific pharmacological treatments, resulting in fractures that could be prevented. Bone strength, estimated using quantitative computed tomography (QCT)-based finite element analyses (FEA), has been shown to improve osteoporosis diagnosis and management. However, increased exposure of patients to X-ray radiations is a limitation in clinical practice. 3D-Shaper Medical SL has developed a software (3D-Shaper®) validated for predicting volumetric density and geometrical parameters of the proximal femur and lumbar vertebrae from planar DXA. It can provide clinicians with QCT equivalent parameters without performing a CT scan.
BONE STRENTH aims to develop a FEA module for 3D-Shaper® that will enable QCT-equivalent bone strength estimations from DXA scans. Through its Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Research Area (BMMB), BCN MedTech has a large experience in computational biomechanics and will develop the Finite Element methods that will be integrated into 3D-Shaper®. Bone strength calculations will be validated against experimentally measured values, and patient-specifically, against QCT-based FE predictions. Performance of the fracture risk assessment will be investigated using case-control clinical cohorts. Furthermore, the 3D-Shaper® FEA module will be used to evaluate the effect of pharmacological treatments, enabling clinical trials with a reduced economic cost and without performing CT scans.
Description of Work
BONE STRENGTH has two Principal investigators (PI). The PI at 3D Shaper Medical SL and coordinator of the project is Ludovic Humbert, Co-founder and CEO of 3D Shaper SL and expert in medical image processing and modelling in biomechanics. The PI at UPF is Jérôme Noailly, head of the BMMB at BCN MedTech, co-director of the SIMBIOSys group at the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), and expert in modelling and simulations in biomechanics and (systems) biology.
The successful Candidate will be a junior postdoctoral researcher, with proven experience in data science and computer simulations in biomedical engineering. He/She will be based at DTIC, UPF and will be responsible for osteoporosis patient stratification based on both clinical and biomechanical information, and for the development of a meta (surrogate) biomechanical model of the femur and the vertebra, to estimate bone strength at reduced computational cost, in collaboration with 3D Shaper Medical SL. Scientific and technical competencies are necessary in modelling and machine learning in biomechanics. Previous experience in physics-based computer simulations and bone biomechanics are welcome. The Researcher will collaborate with a small team of researchers dedicated to the same project and will report periodically to the respective PI of UPF and 3D Shaper Medical SL, to ensure (i) that the timelines of the project and deliverables are met, and (ii) that the project results can be properly disseminated through scientific and medical congresses and journals. Hence, communication, teamwork and leadership skills will be chiefly important.
At UPF, the successful Candidate will evolve in the highly international environment of DTIC. There, he/she will be able to interact directly with the 60+ investigators of BCN MedTech who gather expertise in medical image analysis and processing, machine learning and data science, complexity analysis, medical devices, and computational biomechanics and biology. Daily working interactions related to the project shall mostly happen with the teams of both the BMMB and the SIMBIOSys group. While day to day working language will be English, Spanish language fosters social interactions and (the learning thereof) is highly recommended.
Contract
The employment for BONE STRENGTH shall be for a period of up to 1,5 years. The successful candidate will be offered a full-time postdoctoral research contract for the implementation of BONE STRENGTH. The number of working hours is 37,5 h per week and 1640 h per year. The gross salary is 33.715,68 € per year. On top of this, social benefits (health, unemployment, retirement) are covered by the employer (UPF).
Requirements
Candidates must:
Selection
1st phase: remote pre-selection (0-100 points):
To pass to the 2nd phase (see below), the Candidate must have scored at least 75/100 during the remote review.
IMPORTANT: the publication records will be double checked through online databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCID, …). The Candidate is encouraged to provide the link of his/her choice in the CV. Failure to access to any online database of the scientific production of the researcher will justify the exclusion of Applicant from the selection process.
2nd phase: interview(s) (0-100):
Should the Applicant be preselected during the 1st phase, (s)he will be informed by email, for a 2nd phase of selection. The 2nd phase will consist in at least one interview through which:
will be assessed, among other aspects (0-10 points will be reserved for the general impression).
The interview must lead to a score of at least 75/100, so that the Candidate can be considered for the final decision.
Final decision
The final decision will be the result of a consensus made by the Recruitment Committee that will consider the results of both selection phases 1 and 2. The Applicant will be informed of the selection outcome by email.
IMPORTANT: The referees might be contacted by the Recruitment Committee, to reach the final decision.
Application
