Funded Joint PhD Studentship: Studying the visco-elastic behaviour of lymph through experimental and computational micro-fluidics

This scholarship is for a joint Swansea-Grenoble PhD. During the candidature the successful applicant will spend time at the College of Engineering, Swansea University and the Doctoral School of Physics, at Université Grenoble Alpes.

Start date: 1 January 2018

Project description:

The lymphatic system returns fluid from interstitial spaces to the blood circulation and it serves as an important transport route for immune cells and antigens. Transport phenomena and/or breakdowns in lymphatic system performance are crucial in cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, inflammatory diseases and injury resolution. However, little is actually known about transport mechanisms in this obscure system. In this project the rheological behaviour of lymph will be investigated and its effect on transport through the lymphatic system will be identified. Due to the small amounts of lymph available a micro-fluidic approach will be taken from design, fabrication, measurement, analysis to simulation of an actively pumping lymphatic network.

Objectives:

To design and fabricate a small-volume micro-fluidic rheometric device.
To interpret measurement data using computational models.
To identify the effect of lymph mechanics through computational models of the lymphatic system.
Supervisors:

Dr R. van Loon, Dr D.J. Curtis, Prof O.J. Guy, College of Engineering, Swansea University
Dr M. Ismail, Dr T. Podgorski Dept. of Physics, Communauté Universités Grenoble Alpe
Eligibility

As this is a joint degree, applicants must meet entry/funder requirements of both Universities, namely:

Communauté Université Grenoble Alpes :

Applicants must hold a Masters degree in a relevant discipline (Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Engineering).

Swansea University:

Either a first class honours degree with a masters in a relevant discipline (Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Engineering) or, a Masters with Distinction.

Required skills:

A strong background in experimentation and/or computation is required. However, the candidate should have an interest and ability to develop skills in both of these areas.
As this is multi-institutional studentship with a team of supervisors, communicative and organisational skills will be very important.
Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is open to UK/EU candidates only.