Predoctoral researcher position to do research within the framework of the project PREVENTITIS - Bioinspired Materials and Interfaces to Prevent Infection of Transepithelial Implants.

Our University is inviting qualified candidates to apply for a predoctoral researcher position to do research within the framework of the project PREVENTITIS - Bioinspired Materials and Interfaces to Prevent Infection of Transepithelial Implants.

UIC Barcelona and home to over 9,000 students. We have 16 bachelor’s degrees, 30 double bachelor’s degrees in addition to a wide range of master’s degree programmes, postgraduate degree programmes and continuing education courses.

UIC Barcelona is a prestigious university with a research and knowledge transfer plan to contribute to the development of science, technology and improve quality of life. UIC Barcelona has 24 recognised research groups in the areas of our PhD programs in Art and Humanities, Social and Legal Sciences, Health Sciences, Engineering and Architecture.

The BIT-Bioengineering Institute of Technology at UIC Barcelona has recently enhanced their research facilities and leadership focus on advanced biology, microbiology and materials science/biomaterials. The Faculty of Odontology has also reinforced the areas of bioactive materials and tissue regeneration and is now seeking to expand and aiming to grow in one of its strategic research lines based on the development of novel multifunctional biomaterial designs and technologies for prevention of burdensome and devastating infections around transdermal implants for oral, maxillofacial and orthopedic applications. Further information on recent publications and research interests can be found here and here.

About Position:

The predoctoral candidate will perform research tasks associated to the aforementioned project, which is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Control of infection of medical devices, implants, and scaffolds is a major worldwide challenge. This type of infections is highly prevalent, and we are in critical need for advancing the frontier of knowledge to unravel mechanisms of action of new methods that will enable efficient prevention of the disease. Ideally, these technologies should provide alternatives to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics.

Antimicrobial resistance, the ability of bacteria to resist existing antibiotics, has been called the climate change of health as it threatens our worldwide health care systems and the success of medical procedures daily.

In this project, we will address infection of transepithelial implants, i.e., implants that protrude through skin or other external mucosal tissue and are used in multiple medical fields.

Our main goal is designing and obtaining combined multi-functional bioinspired materials and surfaces that circumvent the use of antibiotics to prevent infection of dental and other transepithelial implants. To accomplish this goal, we will harness biomolecules at surfaces and physical properties of materials based on scientific principles at the interface of materials science and biology.

The project is highly multidisciplinary and will require to perform tasks expanding from materials and surface science and engineering, nanotechnologies, in vitro molecular and cellular (micro)biology and in vivo validation of the developed implants.

In the framework of this project, the selected predoctoral candidate will be co-supervised by two leading researchers at UIC Barcelona in the field of biomaterials and prevention of implant infection; Professor Javier Gil and Professor Conrado Aparicio.

The selected candidate will perform tasks in a nurturing research environment where additional opportunities will be provided to support progress towards a fruitful career in academics. To that end, the predoctoral researcher will be able to support UIC Barcelona’s educational programs on topics related to the studied project and, during the last two years of the position, co-supervise with the PIs research projects performed by pre-graduate students in the Bioengineering and Odontology programs.

Responsibilities:

The predoctoral researcher will advance towards a PhD degree by taking advanced courses, offered by the Doctoral School at UIC Barcelona, and conduct research tasks, mentored by the PIs of the project, and directed at contributions for the design, fabrication, physicochemical and in vitro/in vivo biological characterization of biomaterials, surfaces and bioinpired coatings for prevention of infection of implants and regenerative tissue constructs. 

Development of biofunctionalized substrate biomaterials with tailored synthetic peptides and new advanced materials with tailored properties for the improvement of implant integration and soft tissue regeneration and prevention of infection is the main goal of this project.

Duties will include:

• design, fabrication, and characterization of peptides coatings and low modulus bioalloys;
• chemical techniques to functionalize material surfaces;
• physicochemical characterization of surface and bulk properties of the obtained materials;
• molecular and cell biology and microbiology techniques with BSL2 pathogens.

The predoctoral researcher is expected to maintain a well-organized lab notebook, develop proficiency in relevant literature in this research area, be involved in the preparation of first-and co-authored manuscripts as well as research proposals, and make presentations at professional meetings.