European Doctoral Academy in Regenerative Engineering Marie Curie Initial Training Network TECAS: Development of a pattern recognition method for quality testing of TE scaffolds and constructs (ESR10)

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 awarded by Hannover Medical School) at Corlife GbR, Hannover, Germany. The main part of this Fellowship will be carried out at Corlife GbR.

Description:
The aim of this Fellowship is to develop a machine-vision and pattern recognition method for semi-automatic quality control in production processes, which will be used to correlate qualitative information from histological sections of native tissues, and TE scaffolds and constructs, to quantitative measurements of ECM constitution and mechanical integrity. Histological sections of native porcine aortic and pulmonary valves, pericardium and myocardium will be produced and scanned by optical microscopy in order to record the length, thickness, distribution and orientation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) fibres, and the distribution of the cell nuclei. The recorded information will be translate into algorithms and correlated to the DNA and ECM protein content, and stress-strain behaviour of the tissues. The evolving pattern database will be used to understand the connection between micro-scale tissue morphology and meso-scale mechanics and to apply such knowledge to ensure TE construct quality. Once established, the method will be used to assess histological sections of valvular and pericardial scaffolds, and cell-seeded TE heart valves and myocardial patches that will be developed in additional ESR projects within the TECAS-ITN.

Research Field: Cardiovascular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Keywords: Quality control, TE scaffolds, heart valves, myocardial patches, algorithms, histological sections

Collaborators: Hannover Medical School, RWTH Aachen University, University of Padua

Supervision: Dr. Michael Harder (PI), Dr. Sergei Cebotari (co-I), Dr. Sotirios Korossis (co-I), Dr. Andres Hilfiker (co-I), Prof. Stefan Jockenhövel (co-I), Prof. Gino Gerosa (co-I)

Person Specification

Required Degree: Master's Degree (or equivalent) in Biomedical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Biochemistry, or Medicine (or related subject)

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 Germany for more than 12 months since May 2010.