Msc. Student internship: Department of biomedical engineering Erasmus MC and Delft University of Technology 3ME Department
General description: The emergence of arterial stents presents a new and exciting minimally invasive treatment alternative to conventional endarterectomy surgery for diseased arterial blockages caused by atherosclerotic plaque build-up. This treatment approach is specifically relevant in the mechanical sense. The stent applies a circumferential force to the entire diseased portion of the artery wall which triggers a whole plaque response. One of the challenges that researchers face in the development and application of stents is that the stent-wall interaction properties are not understood and a consequence this treatment approach cannot preclude the catastrophic stroke event which is currently ranked as one of the leading cause of death.
We think that this problem can be tackled by truly understanding stent-wall interaction. The use of a test-bed that would allow us to directly measure the forces experienced by the stent, the plaque tissue and its diverse pathological components during the stenting procedure would be invaluable for the clinic. This test-bed will require a novel experimental device development that can acquire local component specific mechanical properties of the tissue. This development process will be done in a joint effort between the Biomedical Engineering group of the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam and the group of the Delft University of Technology.
Project description:In this master project you will be involved in this important clinical challenge working towards the development of a test-bed that is capable of measuring the forces involved during stenting human disease arterial vessels. In particular, you will perform experimental work on stent-vessel wall interactions, plaque tissue material characterisation and local tissue damage failure analysis. The fusion of this advanced experimental data with finite element modelling will allow for the advancement in 3D computational models of stent-wall interaction. This project will allow you to develop diverse research skills for both medical and biomechanical engineering applications.
Our Requirements: For this project we are looking for a highly motivated master student with;
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A background in biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, applied physics, computational science or related
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Enthusiasm about working in a multidisciplinary medical-engineering research setting
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Interests in experimental design research
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Skills in general experimental mechanics
We offer:
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A unique M.Sc. internship within the field of biomechanics
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Multidisciplinary collaborations
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Academic research experience
Additional information:
Please contact:
Hilary Barrett, PhD h.barrett@erasmusmc.nl
Prof. Jenny Dankelman J.Dankelman@tudelft.nl
Prof. dr. Frank Gijsen, PhD f.gijsen@erasmusmc.nl
Biomechanics laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering Room Ee23.42, Thoraxcenter, Erasmus MC P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands |
