PhD Candidate in Bioengineering of Human Heart Development

We are looking for a PhD candidate to participate in a multidisciplinary team in Nijmegen and Twente to develop innovative human heart organoid models. Cardiovascular disease is one of the major causes of death and morbidity worldwide, and congenital heart disease is the most common cause of death among deaths attributable to birth defects. Importantly, cardiomyocytes obtained by differentiation of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells can be used to model cardiovascular disease and to identify drug targets for therapy. Notably, these cardiomyocytes exhibit features that reflect the disease pathology of the patient, representing a cutting-edge platform for drug discovery, disease modelling, and regenerative medicine. Exciting recent results of the team have opened new avenues for bioengineering heart tissues that feature multiple layers and cell types, which could revolutionise heart disease modelling.

As a member of this team you will perform state-of-the-art single-cell genomics and epigenomics experiments to study the self-organisation and differentiation potential of cardiac cell types in bioengineered human heart tissue. You will collaborate with team members who specialise in stem cell differentiation (Twente), bioengineering (Twente) and computational biology (Nijmegen, Twente) as part of an NWO-XL project called HeartEngine. As part of the Veenstra lab in the Department of Molecular Developmental Biology, you will enter our four-year PhD programme at Radboud University. Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your working time.