PhD Studentship in Science at the University of Nottingham, England

As one of its contributions to development cooperation, every academic year The University of Nottingham selects exceptional students from developing countries as scholarship candidates to obtain their fully-funded PhD Studentship from one of the largest university of England.

The aim is to allow students to conduct PhD research to produce high accuracy multi-functionalised scaffold and tissue models mimicking actual body parts.

Summary

Project Description

Title: Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) of multi-functional scaffold and tissue models through multi-material projection micro stereolithography (pµSLA)

The successful applicant will participate in a fully-funded programme to look into the production of high accuracy multi-functionalised scaffold and tissue models mimicking actual body parts. The ability to fabricate and customise these models not only helps to increase the accuracy of in vitro assessment, reducing the need of in vivo test (i.e. organ on a chip, organoids) but also opens the vista of real organ printing.

Projection Micro stereolithography (puSLA) is a high resolution (~2µm) Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique that has been commercialised in recent years. It enables the user to create centimetre-scale devices with extreme feature resolution approaching those of single mammalian cells.

Although not currently commercialised, the puSLA process also can integrate multiple materials through a customised fluidic cell unit. The successful applicant will work on a project, including the development and optimisation of a highly efficient multi-material printing unit for puSLA.  Based on the new unit, high accuracy multi-material devices will be produced for in vitro assessment to investigate their unique mechanical performance and cell response brought by micron-scale 3D printing.

The person appointed will work as part of a dynamic interdisciplinary team focussed on developing cutting edge polymer technologies as part of the CfAM. The CfAM is a large interdisciplinary group active in the area of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing. Comprising of around 100 academics, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students, it is one of the largest research centres for additive manufacturing and 3D printing worldwide. The Centre engages with a broad range of academics from across the UK and a significant number of industrial partners to deliver on an industrially prioritised research agenda – this particular project is part of a large, collaborative EPSRC Programme Grant looking at Next Generation Additive Manufacturing (EP/P031684/1).

Application Deadline

The deadline for applications isApril 20 2021

Eligibility

Applicants should have or expect to obtain a first-class or 2:1 degree in Chemistry, Engineering, Physics or a science-related discipline. 

Application Process

Please send your covering letter, CV and academic transcripts to cfam@nottingham.ac.uk referring to the project title. Please note applications without academic transcripts will not be considered. 

Start date: April 1, 2021 

Applications will close when this studentship has been allocated, so you should apply as soon as possible.

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