Post doctoral positions available for Biological Machines

Two EBICS Post doctoral positions available on Emergent biological machines

For the last few decades, engineering has produced marvelous machines and devices. However, these machines have two major limitations: they cannot self-assemble, or self-heal. With the increasing understanding of living cells, there are possibilities of developing living biological machines that may emerge from interactions between cells and between cells and engineered scaffolds. These living machines may have unprecedented capabilities, as they would carry the footprints of the evolutionary journey of life. Our labs have presented initial evidence that such machines can be developed from elementary engineered scaffolds and muscle cells. The cells dynamically interact with each other and the deformable substrate using biophysical and biochemical signaling, and collectively organize themselves into a coherent tissue, mimicking phase transformation in complex systems. The project will further develop and study the underlying working principles of these engineered living machines. The new machines will involve multiple cell types, such as neurons and muscle cells that may empower them with intelligence. The study will need expertise on basic biology (cell culture, differentiation, transfection, imaging, etc.) and mechanics (solid and fluid mechanics, applied mathematics, biomechanics, applied physics).

The project is funded by US National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, named EBICS (Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems, http://ebics.net/). The center is formed by U of Illinois, MIT and Georgia Tech involving about 25 faculty members and 60 graduate students and post docs. Two post doctoral positions are now available at UIUC. They will be filled by individuals with the above two expertise. They will be working under the joint supervision of Professor Taher Saif and Rashid Bashir. The post docs will be expected to conduct research and publish papers, guide graduate students, coordinate with other groups within EBICS related to biological machines, prepare reports for NSF, and assists with writing grant proposals for future funding. Applications will be accepted until January 10, 2017.  

Please submit your applications by email with three letters of references to

Professor Taher Saif

Mechanical Science and Engineering

saif@illinois.edu

and

Professor Rashid Bashir

Bioengineering

rbashir@illinois.edu