PhD position in Biomechanics / Musculoskeletal modelling 100%

PhD position in Biomechanics / Musculoskeletal modelling 100%

The University Children's Hospital Basel (UKBB) in collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBE) at the University of Basel invite applications for a PhD position to be filled as of September 1st, 2024 or by agreement.

The project

Anterior knee pain, notably due to patella-femoral joint instability (PFJ) is a very common orthopaedics issue, particularly in adolescent girls. The causes for the instability are multi factorial and there is a knowledge gap on what are the most important factors and the patho-mechanics of the instability. We hypothesise the relative contribution of each factor varies from one patient to another, and between groups of increasing level of instability.
The objective of this project is to develop and implement a patient-specific musculoskeletal modelling platform to evaluate the relative contribution of each factor to the PFJ instability. Medical imaging will be utilised to create patient specific lower limb models and provide accurate markers to bone registration. Musculoskeletal simulations will utilise the OpenSim musculoskeletal modelling platform.

Your position

The PhD student will be working among a multidisciplinary team of orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists, human movement scientists, and biomedical engineers at UKBB and at DBE.
You will be expected to:

• oversee data collection for the project at UKBB,
• participate in outreach activities of the project,
• present her/his research at scientific meetings.

Your profile

• Hold a Master's degree in Biomechanics or related fields,
• Excellent, demonstrated, programming skills (Matlab/python),
• Good command of German (to interact with patients and families),
• Good command of English (work space language),
• Be able to work autonomously within an internationally and institutionally diverse environment.

We offer you

• Multidisciplinary, stimulating clinical and research environment, with cutting edge medical imaging infrastructure,
• Enrollment in an established PhD program. The PhD project is fully funded for up to four years,
• Competitive salary by international standards and according to the guidelines of the University of Basel,
• Five weeks of holidays per year, 42 working hours per week,
• Basel is an international city on the Rhine River northwest of Switzerland. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders.