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PhD student Bioengineering in Regeneration and Cancer group

Job Summary

PhD Project: Biocatalytic materials for in vitro protein synthesis with applications in regenerative medicine
Location: Bioengineering in Regeneration and Cancer located at the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Biogipuzkoa, San Sebastian, Spain, is looking for a PhD student to join our interdisciplinary team. Research in our lab aims to understand how biophysical and biochemical properties of native extracellular matrix and synthetic biomaterials guide cellular response in tissue regeneration, breast cancer dormancy and bone metastasis.
This project will be carried out in collaboration with the Heterogeneous Biocatalysis Lab by Dr. Fernando López at CIC biomaGUNE. This group works on the development of enzymatic systems and cellular machineries for in vitro biotechnological applications.
Profile: Background in biotechnology, chemistry, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering or similar. Knowledge in hydrogel fabrication and cell culture will be an asset.

Job Description

Research project: The objective of the project is the development of biocatalytic materials for in vitro synthesis of proteins with applications in regenerative medicine.
First, the expression of proteins of therapeutic interest will be evaluated in vitro by trapping the
transcription/translation machinery in hydrogels (Benítez-Mateos, ACS Synth Biol 2020). Cytokines such as interleukin-2 (IL-2), cell adhesion proteins such as cadherin type II and growth factors such as bone morphogenic protein 2 (BMP-2) will be investigated.
The diffusion kinetics of cytokines and growth factors in alginate-based 3D hydrogels and scaffolds will be analyzed. The physical and/or chemical crosslinking of alginates, different degree of crosslinking and degradation properties (Cipitria et al., Acta Biomater, 2017; Lueckgen et al., Biomaterials 2018; Lueckgen et al., Biomaterials 2019, Garrido et al., Biomater Adv 2023), will determine the mesh size, mechanical characteristics and diffusion of biomolecules.
Finally, the biological functionality of these cytokines and growth factors will be evaluated in cell cultures in vitro and in pre-clinical animal models by means of different molecular and cellular biology techniques (i.e. western blot, histology)

Benefits

We offer a PhD student contract with a duraiton of 18 months in Biogipuzkoa and 18 months in CIC
biomaGUNE.
Type of working day: full time
Expected start date: between November-December 2023.
Salary: 17.830€ gross per year.
*It is possible that the remuneration may be attributed according to the dedication and value of the
candidate (mobility, experience and training) and his/her suitability for the position offered.
The employee must comply with the Center's own operating rules, in terms of dedication, function to
be performed, schedule and vacations

Comment/web site for additional job details

https://gestiononline.bioef.eus/ConvocatoriasPropiasBiogipuzkoa/es/Convocatorias/VerConvocatoria/2788