Salary based on the guidelines from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Your position We aim to pursue a new interdisciplinary approach, combining the synthesis of multi-functional culture-matrices with cell-instructive viscoelastic properties, in-depth cell characterisation, and computational modelling to investigate the relationship between matrix properties and osteogenesis. This will contribute to deciphering the importance of mechanical stimulation of the cellular microenvironment, and advance understanding of osteoinductive scaffold development in bone tissue engineering. Our three objectives are a) to rationally engineer hydrogels tuned to the specific mechanical requirements for osteogenesis b) to dissect how targeted manipulation of the hydrogel affects mechanoregulation in human dental pulp stem cells, and c) to propose a computational model to elucidate and predict the cell response. A key innovation in this PhD project is to engineer environmentally (cell)-instructive hydrogels with controlled architecture (pore size, network interconnectivity) and mechanical properties (viscoelasticity) to recapitulate the mechanical micro-environment of the jawbone. Mechanosensitive complexes within the hydrogel form stimuli-responsive cross-links that adjust hydrogel viscoelasticity as a function of cytoskeletal tension, guiding cell growth.
