European Doctoral Academy in Regenerative Engineering Marie Curie Initial Training Network TECAS: Tissue Engineering Solutions for Cardiovascular Surgery Molecular biomechanics of α-actin remodelling (ESR1)

Overview
The TECAS Initial Training Network (TECAS-ITN) integrates the major European investigators and experts in the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering (TE) and regenerative medicine (RM), with a view to establishing a European Doctorate Training Programme in Regenerative Medicine. The aim of the Programme is to facilitate the cross-disciplinary and intersectorial training of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in the field, by consolidating the extensive multidisciplinary experience in training and research of its academic, clinical and industrial Partners. The TECAS-ITN focuses on the clinical needs of cardiac valve replacement/repair, myocardium reconstruction and patch graft angioplasty of the great blood vessels, with a view to developing the underpinning expertise and technology for manufacturing cardiovascular TE implants for clinical use. The TECAS-ITN will host 13 ESR Fellows at 6 different Partner Institutions, each performing an individual research project that is placed along the innovation pipeline of a number of TE products/technologies from basic science to translational research. The training of the ESR Fellows will be supervised by a consortium of 5 academic/clinical, 2 industrial and 1 regulatory agency Partners with wide expertise in basic science, clinical research, translation and standardisation of TE technologies, and will be complemented by 2 project-specific Exchange secondments to other TECAS-ITN Partners collaborating on a specific Fellowship, 1 Clinical secondment to a tissue/organ bank of the clinical Partners, 1 Industrial secondment to an industrial Partner and 1 Laboratory secondment to an academic institution outside TECAS-ITN, as well as through an extensive curriculum of academic and transferable skills courses.

Summary:
This ESR Fellowship opening covers a 3‐year research position (resulting in a PhD degree) at Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The main part of this Fellowship will be carried out at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Division of Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering.

Description:
The aim of this Fellowship will be to investigate whether the cellular traction that develops, together with the anisotropic extracellular matrix micro-environment, can predict collagen architecture in TE constructs and native tissues. The Fellow will develop 2D and 3D mathematical descriptions of intracellular α-actin distribution and orientation in response to mechanical stimuli and will implement these constitutive models in a molecular biomechanics 3D finite element computational model. The computational predictions of α-actin distribution and orientation will be validated against experimental models, and will be subsequently included in an established cell-based computational model of collagen remodelling. The predictions of the combined computational model of α-actin and collagen remodelling will be validated against experimental TE model systems developed in other projects within the TECAS-ITN.

Research Field: Cardiovascular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Keywords: Computational modelling, α-actin distribution, collagen architecture, cell-induced traction forces

Collaborators: RWTH Aachen University and Hospital, Hannover Medical School, University of Padua.

Supervision: Prof. Frank Baaijens (PI), Prof. Carlijn Bouten (co-I), Dr. Sotirios Korossis (co-I), Prof. Stefan Jockenhövel (co-I), Prof. Gino Gerosa (co-I)

Person Specification

Required Qualifications: The candidate should have a thorough previous training in finite strain continuum mechanics and the numerical implementation of non-linear finite element techniques. Candidates should typically have a Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biophysics or related educational programs.

Required Languages: English (Excellent)

Eligibility: The Fellowship is open to international candidates, who at the time of recruitment have less than 4 years research experience (full-time equivalent) following completion of their Master's Degree (or equivalent), and have not yet been awarded a doctoral degree. Eligible candidates must also not have resided or carried their main activity in the Netherlands for more than 12 months since October 2010.