Nowlan:Opportunities

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MRes/PhD Opportunities for October 2017 Opportunities are available in the Developmental Biomechanics group for enthusiastic MRes and PhD students. The research focus of the group is the importance of fetal movements for skeletal development. When a baby doesn’t move enough in the womb, their bones and joints may not form normally, and our research aims to find out why and how this can occur. Both experimental and computational projects are available, and researchers from either a biology (e.g., developmental biology, physiology, genetics) or engineering background are welcome- we are an interdisciplinary group! If you are interested in pursuing a research project in our group then please email Dr Nowlan (a) your CV and (b) a brief description of which type of project you are interested in and why. Please note that the projects described below are exemplar projects, and it may be possible to offer different projects depending on your particular interests. Possible additional project ideas include: the importance of mechanical forces for spine development in the embryonic chick creating a mechanobiological simulation of joint shape morphogenesis computational modelling of human fetal movements Effects on prenatal joint development of a period of immobility followed by movement recovery in the chick model system Image registration analysis of joint shape development Funding MRes applicants must arrange their own funding sources. PhD funding is competitive, and is organised through the Department of Bioengineering Doctoral Training Programme (DTP). You may be eligible for alternative/additional scholarship schemes- information on scholarships here Project #1: Recapitulating skeletogenesis in vitro: biomechanics and mechanobiology of cartilage and bone development Research from our group has shown that mechanical stimulation due to fetal movements (in vivo) or due to applied mechanical forces (in vitro) leads to measurable changes in growth and shape effects in the developing skeleton. This project will use a bioreactor system to culture developing chick and mouse limb explants in order to quantify the relationship between movements and developmental change, and to explore the cell and organelle level changes leading to the observed changes. The work will be highly relevant to tissue engineering of cartilage and bone, as we will be aiming to use mechanical forces to more closely recapitulate developmental processes leading to functional skeletal tissues. This project would be suitable for candidates from either biology or engineering backgrounds. Bioreactor Project #2: Fetal movements as biomarkers of prenatal brain development Fetal movements are an important indicator of a developing baby’s health and particularly of brain development. However, fetal movements are not commonly assessed clinically and no automated tracking or analyses of movements are performed. Ongoing research in our group has developed algorithms to track fetal leg movements, and pilot data indicates that aspects of fetal movements may correlate with healthy or unhealthy brain development. This project will build upon previous projects to develop enhanced automated tracking methods for fetal movements from fetal cine MRI data, and correlate the movements with normal and abnormal brain development. This project offers a valuable opportunity to work on a highly interdisciplinary project, with close collaboration with clinicians. The project would be suitable for candidates with a bioengineering, biophysics or computer science background, with prior knowledge or experience of image processing being a particular advantage. This project will be joint supervised by Dr Niamh Nowlan and Dr Bernhard Kainz (Department of Computing) Fetal movements biomarker