PhD Student for Wearable Optical Sensors in Wound Healing
We drive innovation in materials science and technology at Empa, a research institution of the ETH Domain. Our passion is to make essential contributions to society for a future worth living.
In our group, we develop smart stimuli-responsive (nano)-materials for diagnostic tools or controlled drug delivery systems to improve wound management. Our focus areas include:
1. Creating novel fluorescent-based detection methods for continuous wound healing monitoring.
2. Achieving temporal and spatial control over drug release through stimuli-responsive materials.
This project is part of Empa's initiative, Wound Booster, which involves several PhD students working on topics related to wound healing.
Project Background
Wound healing is a complex process restoring injured skin to full functionality. Bacterial presence impairs healing, leading to inflammatory lesions, chronic wounds, and sepsis. Inadequate wound management and multidrug-resistant strains increase global health burdens, resulting in high costs due to prolonged hospitalization. Developing efficient treatments and improving wound management is crucial.
In the Wound Booster initiative, we aim to design a precision, self-care integrated system to understand, simulate, and monitor skin wound evolution. We will couple an analytical, omics-based platform with wearables for spatiotemporal wound monitoring and patient-specific treatment.
You will develop sensors integrated in adaptive wound dressings combining optical sensing approaches to prevent signal interference and allow for simultaneous assessment of multiple markers. You will work closely with two other Empa PhD students on optical sensing of bacterial loading and unbiased protein biomarker studies.
Your Profile
We seek a highly motivated PhD candidate with a strong background in Chemistry or Materials Science. The ideal candidate should be proficient in spoken and written English, have a Master's degree, and be driven by scientific curiosity. Previous experience in surface functionalization chemistries, spectrophotometric analysis, release kinetics analysis, and hydrogel synthesis is required.
Our Offer
The PhD student will be affiliated with ETH Zürich and supervised by Dr. Luciano F. Boesel, Dr. Mathias Bonmarin, and Prof. René Rossi. The project duration is 3-4 years, starting upon mutual agreement.
Candidates must address the project in their letter of motivation. Applications without this information will not be considered.