1 PhD position in In-Vitro modeling and FSI of endovascular aortic repair - Marie Curie ITN project Meditate - ESR10

1 Early Stage Researcher (ESR) PhD position offered in biomechanics within the framework of the project MeDiTATe (The medical digital twin for aneurysm prevention and treatment) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Networks (ITN) with Grant Agreement No. 859836. MeDiTATe is a European Industrial Doctorate (EID). The whole project aims to develop state-of-the-art image based medical Digital Twins of cardiovascular districts for a patient specific prevention and treatment of aneurysms.

The aim of this ESR programme is to develop a mock loop for in-vitro testing and in-silico model for ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm treatment to (i) validate the endovascular procedure and (ii) to analyse the effect of endograft implant in the fluid-dynamic environment by CFD. For the achievement of the objectives, 4 phases of the research activities are planned: mechanical characterization of aneurysmatic vessel tissue for ascending thoracic aortic district, morphological assessment of patient specific models for aneurysms, in-vitro simulation of the surgical implant with fluid-dynamic characterization through the mock loop and in-silico simulation of the surgical implant. For the first phase an ex-vivo fresh specimen is gathered from patient undergoing selective surgical procedure according to the best clinical practice, then a mechanical characterization (uniaxial/biaxial traction tests) is achieved and experimental data extraction and fitting via constitutive model with particular attention to anisotropic behaviour is carried. The second phase foresees a patient-specific images and data extraction from clinical FTGM Database, image post-processing and segmentation for morphology definition and additive manufacturing of patient-specific models (rigid in a first step and then compliant according to experimental data). For the third phase the simulation of the implant deployment is carried and the evaluation of the implant performances on the patient-specific model by extracting the resulting experimental data (pressures, flows, etc.) is achieved. Last phase is completed by carrying CFD Simulations before, after and during endograft deployment and validating and comparing numerical results with experimental data from in-vitro simulation. 

ESR10 will be enrolled in the PhD programme of University of Lyon at Mines Saint-Etienne, France. The PhD thesis will take place at 2 different places: (a) Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio per la Ricerca Medica e di Sanità Pubblica (Italy), public entity specialized in healthcare and research activities of interest to the public health services (for pediatric and adult patients) in the field of cardiology, cardio-surgery, electrophysiology and for the treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases. FTGM performs interventional hemodynamics, heart surgery for neonatal, pediatric and adult patients, anesthesia and intensive therapy for neonatal, pediatric, and adult patients, advanced diagnostic imaging: radiodiagnostics, nuclear medicine, cardiac magnetic resonance, and laboratory medicine; (b) Predisurge, Saint Étienne (France) which aims at developing software solutions to achieve better training, preoperative planning and intervention in the cardiovascular domain. Predisurge is a spin-off of Mines Saint-Etienne (France) and is based in the CIS department, which conducts major international research projects in the field of soft tissue biomechanics, in particular aortic aneurysms. ESR10 will collaborate with other researchers of CIS involved in ERC projects (https://www.mines-stetienne.fr/en/author/avril/, https://www.emse.fr/~badel/). A one-month secondment will take place at Università Degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata (Italy). 

Please find more information regarding benefits and eligility criteria in https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/491971 and pdf attached.

Send CV, cover letter, BSc and MSc degrees, and letters of recommendation to all the following recipients: avril@emse.fr, simona.celi@ftgm.it and david.perrin@predisurge.com, miquel.aguirre@emse.fr including "Application to Meditate ESR10 project" in the subject line of your email.

Application deadline: 15/03/2020

For any queries, feel free to contact me at miquel.aguirre@emse.fr