About the Project
The advent of disposable medical consumable items, which offers the safety of zero-contamination possibility without the need for disinfection, has participated in the recent increase of medical plastic waste. With the development of personalised medicine technologies, namely new point-of care diagnostic tests made of disposable polymeric plastic cartridges, the volume of plastic waste is going to increase dramatically. To address this issue, the candidate will explore in the first part of the project, the manufacturing of disposable microfluidic chips for clinical point-of-care applications using environmentally-friendly polymeric mixtures with minimal pollutant release during combustion. This part of the project will be held in collaboration with Prof La Carrubba’s group at the University of Palermo, Italy. The second part of the project will focus on the total integration of a portable sample preparation tool and its test in clinical situations.
This is a highly interdisciplinary project. We are accepting applications from students with a range of backgrounds from electronics through material science and chemical engineering. You must demonstrate hands-on skills and prior experience with system development. Selected student will additionally obtain a visiting status at the University of Edinburgh.
Due to handling of clinical samples during the project, Hep B vaccination is mandatory. You will need to present appropriate documentation before or shortly after the start of the project.
MKK Lab is an innovative joint enterprise between Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. MKK is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow heading a multi-disciplinary group of several PhD students and co-supervised post-docs, developing miniaturised tools for rapid and robust clinical diagnostics. MKK is a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research and the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland.
http://www.ed.ac.uk/pathway-medicine/our-staff/staff-profiles/dr-maiwenn-kersaudy-kerhoas-profile
https://pureapps2.hw.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/maiwenn-kersaudykerhoas(65880d61-d873-4381-aca8-c2360377741f).html
Funding Notes
Eligibility
Candidates must have at least First Class degree at an undergraduate Masters level in an appropriate physical sciences or engineering area, OR where projects are suited best for a biological sciences graduate, an Upper Second Class degree is the minimum requirement. Applications should include a cover letter detailing which project the candidate is interested in and the motivation for applying for the particular project and a PhD in general. A full cv should also be included with the application. Please read the eligibility instructions carefully as non-eligible applications will not be acknowledged.
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
References
Impact of microfluidic processing on bacterial ribonucleic acid expression. S. K. Gandi, D. Watson, M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M. P. Y. Desmulliez, T. Bachmann and H. Bridle, Biomicrofluidics. 2015. 9:031102
Exosome isolation: A microfluidic road-map A. Liga, A. D.B Vliengenthart, W. Oosthuyzen, J.Dear, M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Lab Chip. 2015. 15:2388-2394
Direct Fetal DNA Fraction Enrichment Using Microfluidic Sample Preparation of Maternal Blood for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing. M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, M.P.Y. Desmulliez, J. Norman, Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2014. 99:A2
Validation of a fully integrated platform and disposable microfluidic chips enabling parallel purification of genome segments for assembly, M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, F. Amalou, Y. Liu, M.P.Y. Desmulliez and W. Shu. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 2014. 111(8):1627–1637
Micro-scale blood plasma separation: From Acoustophoresis to Egg-beaters. M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, and E.Sollier. Lab On Chip. 2013.
Validation of a blood plasma separation system by biomarker detection, M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, D.M. Kavanagh, R.S. Dhariwal, C.J. Campbell, M.P.Y. Desmulliez, Lab on a Chip. 2010 10(12): 1587-1595.
Hydrodynamic blood plasma separation in microfluidic channels, M. Kersaudy-Kerhoas, R.S. Dhariwal, M.P.Y. Desmulliez, L. Jouvet. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. 2010. 8(1):105-114.
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