Connectionists: [jobs] 3-year Post-Doc: Robotic systems for 3D skeletal muscle tissues pacing and regeneration

[Massimo Sartori]

Are you interested in breakthrough rehabilitation robotic technologies for
restoring movement following neuromuscular injuries? Are you passionate
about designing and developing robotic systems for skeletal muscle
regeneration? Would you like to apply robotic design, fabrication and
control in the context of tissue-engineered skeletal muscles *in vitro*?



The Neuro-Mechanical Modeling and Engineering Lab (http://bit.ly/NMLab) is
seeking for an outstanding post-doctoral fellow to work within our new
Project ROBOREACTOR funded by the prestigious European Research Council
(Consolidator Grant). You will join an international team working on a
novel and ambitious project at the frontiers of robotics, muscle physiology
and regenerative medicine (http://bit.ly/NMLTube).


The opening:

You will develop a robotic system to pace (*i.e.,* both mechanically and
electrically) skeletal muscle tissues engineered *in vitro* from
human-induced pluripotent stem cells. The envisioned robotic system will
enable skeletal tissues to be simultaneously stretched (*i.e.,* via movable
pillars), while receiving electrical stimulation (*i.e.,* via carbon
electrodes). The robot will deliver closed-loop controlled mechanical
strain to the tissue under various levels of activation over a period of 4
weeks to study tissue structural remodeling.


Your tasks will be:

   - Design and develop the robot for tissue pacing including:
      - Selection of biocompatible materials for the robot structure.
      - Selection of sensors for closed-loop control, to be compatible with
      a cell culture incubator, visible light and fluorescence
microscopy as well
      as stimulation electrodes.
      - Development of low-level controllers of tissue strain and
      electrical activation.
   - Conduct *in vitro* experiments, perform tissue handling and analyses (
   *e.g.,* (immuno)histology, imaging, or qPCR analyses) to assess the
   efficacy of the robot in promoting muscle tissue growth over a 4-week
   period. This task will be conducted together with a PhD candidate team
   member.



Your work will be facilitated by in-house expertise and mentorship. You
will collaborate with top-scientists on aspects including muscle-on-a-chip
and statistical modelling, giving large opportunity to perform impactful
research!


Information and application

Apply by August 26th, 2024 via this link: https://bit.ly/3zhqVSq



ERC Consolidator Grant ROBOREACTOR: Is it possible to regenerate new,
healthy biological tissues in the human body after neuro-muscular injuries
such as a stroke? Can we develop intelligent robots that autonomously
discovers the electro-mechanical stimuli needed for skeletal muscles (and
its innervating spinal motor neurons) to regenerate over time, potentially
outperforming conventional rehabilitation? These are some of the questions
my team and I will address in the coming 5 years. We will do that by
proposing radically new sensor-driven, AI-powered computational models to
predict structural remodelling in the skeletal muscle across large time
scales i.e., weeks to months. We'll use these predictive models to command
rehabilitation robots closed-loop control key muscle adaptation and
remodelling both *in vitro* and *in vivo*.


Project Web Page: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101123866


---
Massimo Sartori
Full Professor and Head of Chair, Neuromuscular Robotics

Lab Head, Neuromechanical Modeling and Engineering Lab

University of Twente, TechMed Centre, Robotics Centre
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Department of Biomechanical Engineering
7500 AE, The Netherlands

Personal: https://people.utwente.nl/m.sartori
Lab: https://bit.ly/NMLab
YouTube: https://bit.ly/NMLTube



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Listen to our podcast
<https://open.spotify.com/show/3dQjP4kQ9nM3IaD5pHYvxB?si=6d90a5aeb6eb485f> on
AI-powered Digital Human Twins!
Watch our work
<https://ntr.nl/Focus/287/detail/Geprinte-benen/VPWON_1353472> on bionic
legs featured on Dutch TV!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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