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
The Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics (LMB – ETH Zurich) together with the Center for Research in Human Movement Variability (MOVCENTR – UNO Omaha) is organizing a 4-day workshop bringing together researchers and experts from different fields to explore the latest advancements and research on biomarkers arising from nonlinear analysis of movement variability. During the workshop, participants will learn about the underlying mathematics and clinical applications of state-of-the-art techniques and tools for assessing nonlinear characteristics of movement: Complexity, Divergence, Regularity, and Recurrences in human movement research (but also other biological signals e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate). The programme includes keynote presentations from world leading experts, think-tank sessions to share opportunities and challenges for fundamental investigations in nonlinear analysis of movement variability, and Consult with Experts sessions to meet one-to-one with experts to discuss and plan your research journey using non-linear analysis tools. A great list of speakers has already been confirmed including Prof. Nick Stergiou, UNO Omaha, Prof. Madalena Costa, Harvard Medical School, Prof. Norbert Marwan, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and many others.
Participants with varied backgrounds (research scientists, clinicians, educators, students…) are all welcome since we include a strong practical component with classroom discussions and hands-on practice to facilitate understanding of the methods.
More info and registration can be found at https://nonlinearanalysis.ethz.ch/
The Insigneo Institute is looking to appoint a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Computational Spine Biomechanics to work on the recently awarded Horizon Europe Project, METASTRA – Computer-aided effective stratification of oncologic patients with vertebral metastases for personalized treatment through robust and validated numerical tools. The project strives to provide a combination of models biomechanically validated and demonstrated in relevant clinical environments that will be incorporated in a clinical decision support system.
Working with Professor Damien Lacroix and Dr. Enrico Dall’Ara you will work to advance the modelling of patients with vertebral metastases for the prevention of fractures to reliably stratify patients based on their fracture risk.
We are seeking candidates with an excellent PhD in biomechanics (or a related discipline). A solid knowledge of finite element modelling, expertise in using finite element software with high level of sophistication (e.g. use of user-subroutines in Abaqus, Ansys) and experience of working as a team member to collaborate, co-operate and participate with others to achieve common objectives and to share experience and ideas is essential.
Deadline for applications: 26th April 2023
To apply please visit this webpage:
Use as keyword: Metastra
And click on Apply!
More information:
The Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics (LMB – ETH Zurich) together with the Center for Research in Human Movement Variability (MOVCENTR – UNO Omaha) is organizing a 4-day workshop converging experts in the field for deeper discussions and future international level efforts and collaboration for development and validation of biomarkers arising from nonlinear analysis of movement variability. During the workshop, participants will learn about the underlying mathematics and real-world applications of latest techniques and tools for assessment of various nonlinear characteristics: Complexity, Divergence, Regularity and Recurrences in human movement research. The programme also includes keynotes from world leading experts, think-tank sessions to share opportunities and challenges for fundamental investigations in nonlinear analysis of movement variability and Consult with Experts sessions to meet one-to-one with experts to discuss and plan your research journey with non-linear analysis tools.
Participants with varied backgrounds (research scientists, clinicians, educators, and students) are welcome since we include a strong practical component with class discussions and hands-on practice to facilitate understanding of the methods. More info and registration here: https://nonlinearanalysis.ethz.ch/
Interested in diving into the fascinating world of microstructural imaging of blood vessels and linking this to tissue biomechanics? There is an open position for a post-doctoral researcher in the Biomechanics Group at Erasmus MC / TU Delft.
Application links and more info: https://www.werkenbijerasmusmc.nl/en/vacancy/88161/postdoctoral-researcher-polarization-sensitive-optical-coherence-tomography-ps-oct
