DTU Electrical Engineering offers a position as PhD student in magnetic resonance in the Biomedical Engineering group.
The PhD scholarship is funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research as part of the project DNP-LIFE: Hyperpolarized magnetic resonance for in vivo quantification of lipid and sugar metabolism in life style related diseases. The overall objective of the project is to understand changes in metabolism due to shifts in dietary intake. This is relevant in developing new innovative healthy food products.
Furthermore, the objective is to generate evidence based dietary recommendations preventing diseases, and to gain therapeutic effects in established diseases. This relates to the increased public health expenses expected in the coming years due to increased frequency of obesity, diabetes, specific cancer diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Hyperpolarization allows rapid and high-sensitivity in vivo detection of pre-polarized 13C-labelled molecules (bioprobes) with a signal enhancement of up to 10,000. This substantially increases the detection limit for quantitative measurements of specific metabolic fluxes involved in lipid, sugar and amino acid metabolism. The hyperpolarization technology for human and large animal studies requires a range of quality control parameters to be measured within a few seconds before the release of the product and delivery to the patient/animal.
In this PhD study the limits of “bed-side” pharmacy will be studied, and the relevant QC parameters and methods will be investigated. Fast non-contact methods needs to be developed for parameters like NMR signal, pH and concentration of the bioprobe. The hyperpolarization of a range of biological molecules will be studied and optimized for in vivo studies. The suitable candidate should have a strong background in analytical chemistry, pharmacy, biotechnology or equivalent, and a good understanding of NMR and/or MRI.
Qualifications
Candidates should have a MSc or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to the MSc in engineering.
Approval and Enrolment
PhD scholarships are subject to academic approval, and the candidates will be enrolled in one of the general PhD programmes at DTU. For information about the general requirements for enrolment and the general planning of the scholarship studies, please see the DTU PhD Guide.
Assessment
The assessment of the applicants will be made by Jan Ardenkjaer-Larsen.
Salary and appointment terms
The salary and appointment terms are consistent with the current rules for PhD students. The period of employment is 3 years.
Further information
Further information may be obtained from Jan Ardenkjaer-Larsen, tel: +45 40 27 27 75.
You can read more about DTU Elektro on www.elektro.dtu.dk.
Application
Please submit your online application no later than 31 March 2015. Applications must be submitted as one pdf file containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply, please open the link "Apply online," fill in the online application form, and attach all your materials in English in one pdf file. The file must include:
- A letter motivating the application (cover letter)
- Curriculum vitae
- Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma (an official translation into English)
- Excel sheet with translation of grades to the Danish grading system (see guidelines and excel spreadsheet here)
Candidates may apply prior to obtaining their master's degree, but cannot begin before having received it.
All qualified candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, inability, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.
Application Deadline : 31 March 2015