Are you interested in working for a world’s top 100 University? We have an exciting opportunity in the School of Chemical, Materi.....
Are you interested in working for a world’s top 100 University? We have an exciting opportunity in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield. You will join the dynamic and internationally renowned group led by Professor Ipsita Roy, specialist in the area of Natural Polymers of bacterial origin, within the Biomaterials research group. Professor Roy’s group is world leading in the area of Biomaterials with special focus on Biomaterials of bacterial origin including Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), Bacterial Cellulose, gamma-Polyglutamic acid and Alginate; and their biomedical applications.
The ideal candidate will at least have a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering or a related area, with special focus on 3D printing of bespoke scaffolds with fused deposition modelling using specific CAD files and G codes. It will be an added advantage if you have experience in Polyhydroxyalkanoate production or any other polymer production via bacterial fermentation. You will be an enthusiastic, hardworking, organised, and dedicated scientist with the ability to efficiently plan and implement your work with high quality. You will be expected to have leadership qualities with the ability to enthuse and motivate members of Professor Roy’s group to achieve to the best of their ability. You will also be expected to write high quality scientific manuscripts describing the work done and to assist in grant proposal writing. You will need to be able to make high quality presentations at conferences to communicate the results achieved. Also, lab supervision of project students and PhD students and other teaching roles will be expected from you.
You will be funded by an EPSRC funded project “Highly Mucoadhesive Sustainable Patches for Effective Treatment of Oral Lichen Planus”. This project is in collaboration with Professor Jonathan Knowles at University College London, UK. Oral lichen planus is a T-cell mediated disease and is relatively common. It can cause significant pain, particularly in its erosive or ulcerative forms. Delivery of drugs to the oral mucosa represents an opportunity due to rapid absorption but also a challenge due to the complex environment. To deliver drugs to the oral mucosa, a patch is needed which is highly elastic but is also highly adhesive within the wet mobile environment. Once this is achieved, controlled drug delivery, both in the spatial and temporal context, of the therapeutic compounds, at appropriate levels, is important. This project aims to meet all these complex criteria. We will utilise a novel, highly elastic and adhesive medium chain length Polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) along with a short chain length PHA (scl-PHA) for enhanced processability, and further improve its adhesiveness using polydopamine coating chemistry.
The materials targeted will be a mcl-PHA and a scl-PHA which belong to a family of green, sustainable, biodegradable, bioresorbable and highly biocompatible polymers, produced using bacterial fermentation. The bioprocess used for the production is normally a fed batch fermentation. This production is currently being optimised at a 30L scale in Professor Ipsita Roy’s laboratory. You will be required to produce the PHAs for use in the development of the mucosal patch. However, your main focus will be the use of the PHAs for the production of 3D printed mucosal patches containing specific spatial distribution of the drugs to ensure that the steroids are mainly delivered to the mucosa.
We’re one of the best not-for-profit organisations to work for in the UK. The University’s Total Reward Package includes a competitive salary, a generous Pension Scheme and annual leave entitlement, as well as access to a range of learning and development courses to support your personal and professional development.
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