The Department of Biomedical Engineering is a cooperation of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of the University of Maastricht. The department participates in distinguishing research programs. Research areas are Molecular Bioengineering & Molecular Imaging; Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering; and Biomedical Imaging & Modeling. TU/e is situated in the European technology hotspot ‘Brainport Eindhoven’, known for its many high-tech industries and start-ups. A sparkling environment with opportunities for talented people.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering considers as the core of their activities design, realization and analysis of new products, processes and materials. Besides the basis of (solid and fluid) mechanics, materials, control and thermodynamics, parts of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing science are important supporting tools. The field is explored by a combination of modeling using fundamental concepts and applied engineering and technology. Automotive Engineering Science and Micro- amp; Nano-Scale Engineering are important departmental themes. The Mechanical Engineering Department comprises about 1000 students and 250 staff members.

Cell lysis is the process of disrupting a cell membrane in order to obtain intracellular material, such as DNA, RNA, proteins, organelles, mitochondria, chloroplasts, etc, for further analysis or use. This is therefore an essential step in many biological and biomedical applications, for example for the sequencing of DNA originating from prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, or for infectious disease testing in which NA of bacteria or viruses must be detected. There are a number of existing lysis methods. Most of them use large volumes and are not suitable for integration in lab-on-chip systems. Methods using chemicals and /or enzymes to lyse cells could be miniaturized, but are considered to be too expensive or too invasive in disposable diagnostic systems. Our approach is to use the combination of electroporation (using electric fields generated by electrodes integrated in the device) with elongational flows to lyse cells in a controlled way within a micro-fluidic system. The advantage of this approach is that it may lead to a gentle, controlled lysis procedure. In addition, the approach would give the opportunity to study cell lysis in a controlled way in order to understand the process better.

The basic idea is that electroporation introduces controlled defects in the cell membrane, effectively weakening it. A subsequent exposure of the cell to an elongational flow would then deform it until complete lysis occurs. This process is reminiscent of classical fracture mechanics approaches.

The aim of the PostDoc project is to design variations of fluidic and electrode geometries to study the lysis method, in particular the effect of lysis on cell content, e.g. proteins or complexes of proteins. The device and the method need to be optimized to obtain a highly controllable method. The focus will be on circulating cells from the blood stream. Based on the experimental results, a model describing the cell failure has to be developed. This model will basically consist of the viscoelastic model for cell deformation, extended with a failure model. The combination of the numerical model and the experiments will lead to a better understanding and prediction of the effects of cell lysis. The project is embedded in a larger research program on ‘Circulating Cells’, performed by a consortium of several academic, clinical and industrial partners and funded by the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM). The PostDoc will interact with these partners, and will be collaborating with existing activities on cell mechanical studies at the Materials Technology Institute.

Requirements

We are looking for candidates with a PhD in biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied chemistry, etc. with a strong affinity for experimental and/or numerical micro-fluidic experiments, cell biology or mechanics, and biomedical applications.

Appointment and Salary

We offer:

* A challenging job at a dynamic and ambitious University
* The appointment is for one year. After a good evaluation your contract can be extended with 7 more months.
* The gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement of the Dutch Universities (CAO NU) and amounts initially to at least € 2861 per month (scale 10.4) depending on prior experience.
* An attractive package of fringe benefits (including excellent work facilities, end of the year allowance and sport facilities).

Application Deadline 31-08-2010
Read more: http://scholarship-positions.com/postdoctoral-position-in-mechanical-screening-and-selection-of-circulating-cells-netherlands/2010/08/04/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScholarshipPositions+%28International+Scholarships+and+Financial+Aid+Positions%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail#ixzz0xQlaszs0