Medical Engineering: Fully Funded EPSRC DTP PhD Scholarship: A computational and experimental framework for tissue engineering scaffold design and characterisation

This scholarship is funded by the EPSRC DTP.

Start date: April 2021

Subject areas: Biomedical / Mechanical / Chemical Engineering

Project description:

Mechanical stimulation in terms of wall shear stress (WSS) has been found that can influence the cellular activities (e.g. differentiation, proliferation, extracellular matrix production). To apply WSS on cells for studying cellular physiology / pathology, and/or regulating tissue formation in tissue engineering in vitro, bioreactors are commonly used in cell culturing experiments. In addition, given the importance of scaffold porous geometry (e.g. porosity, pore architecture and pore size) on influencing the WSS on cells within a bioreactor, one of the strategies to regulate cellular behaviours can be via tuning the scaffold porous geometries. Therefore, this PhD project aims to develop a computational and experimental framework for designing tissue engineering scaffold geometry and characterising its influence on the internal micro-mechanical environment. This framework will be applied to scaffold geometric design for various tissue engineering applications (e.g. bone, cartilage, etc.).

Project supervisors: Dr Feihu Zhao and Dr Bjørnar Sandnes

Available resources/facilities:

Computational software (e.g. ANSYS / Abaqus / FEBio), imaging facilities (e.g. optical microscope, X-ray microtomography), 3D printer.

Collaborator: The Reconstructive Surgery & Regenerative Medicine Research (ReconRegen) Group, Swansea University Medical School

Eligibility

Candidates should hold a minimum of an upper second class (2:1) honours degree (or its equivalent) and/or a master's in engineering, physics or a relevant discipline.

We would normally expect the academic and English Language requirements (IELTS 6.5 overall with 5.5+ in each component) to be met by point of application. For details on the University’s English Language entry requirements, please visit – http://www.swansea.ac.uk/admissions/english-language-requirements/

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to UK/EU candidates only. EU nationals are required to be ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship.