Postdoc in inhaled-medicines at Department of Pharmacy

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
University of Copenhagen

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic postdoc interested in working to improve the current inhalation therapy.The candidate should have a strong background in pulmonary drug delivery and extensive research experience in aerosol formulation development and aerodynamic assessment of fine particles. The successful candidate will be employed in the Department of Pharmacy at University of Copenhagen, work with two industrial partners in an EuroStars consortium, i.e. SMART-HALE. We strive to develop the world’s first smart dry powder inhaler that translates sound into indicative information to guide patients to correct inhaled medicine intake. This is a 20 months position to commence 1 March 2023 or as soon as possible.

Information on the department can be found at: https://pharmacy.ku.dk/ 

Our research
The Department of Pharmacy at University of Copenhagen is a world-leading research institute specialized in pharmaceutics and analytical chemistry. The mission of the department is to advance the pharmaceutical sciences by performing drug-related research and research-based teaching. Our research is interdisciplinary by nature. The research topics include pharmaceutical technology and formulation, drug delivery, advanced drug analysis, and clinical and social pharmacy. We strongly emphasize the further development of our cross-disciplinary collaborations with Danish as well as international research institutions and businesses, including clinical hospital departments, pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and spin-out companies.

Project description and Your job
Over 1 billion people suffer from respiratory conditions. To better control these conditions, healthcare professionals are shifting away from oral and injected medication towards inhaled medication in order to directly target the site of diseases. However, use of inhalers has been associated with poor inhalation technique, significantly contribute to poor clinical outcomes and a high cost to society.

In this project, together with two industrial partners, we strive to develop the world’s first smart digital dry powder inhaler using sound-based machine learning to monitor inhalation performance in order to reduce inhaler technique errors and improve patients adherence. The digital therapeutics are a fast growing area within patient-centric pharmaceutical development. In this specific project, the dry powder inhaler (DPI) will be uniquely designed from sustainable materials and constructed with an integrated acoustic device that produces sound while inhaling the medicines. The collected acoustic signal is processed by a smartphone application (mobile app) trained with machine learning to indicate the inhaled dose and lung deposition. The first use case of our technology platform will be applied to track a short-term inhaled antibiotic course.

The successful candidate will work in an interdisciplinary team composed of aerosol formulation scientists, device engineers, and data scientists from the university and the industrial partners. Your tasks would be designing inhalable dry powder formulations, investigating the correlation between the acoustic signal collected from existing dry powder inhalers and the inhalable dry powder formulations, and evaluating and optimizing newly designed smart digital inhalers for antibiotic delivery to the lung. These tasks will be carried out in close collaboration with aerosol formulation scientists, data scientists, and device engineers in the consortium of SMART-HALE.

Profile
We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic scientist with the following competencies and experience:

Essential experience and skills:

• You have a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, chemical engineering, aerosol sciences, or a related field.
• You are highly experienced in dry powder formulations, solid state characterization, characterization of particle properties, aerodynamic assessment of fine particles, quantitative analytical methods
• You have an active interest in aerosol drug delivery, particle engineering, device design, machine learning, data sciences, social and clinical pharmacy.
• Proficient communication skills and ability to work both independently and as part of multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience in supervising other researchers at different levels
• Excellent English skills written and spoken

Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Department of pharmacy, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 20 months. The starting date is 1 March 2023 or after agreement.

Salary, pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. Currently, the monthly salary starts at 35,700 DKK/approx. 5,000 EUR (October 2022 level). Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions, if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

Questions
For further information please contact Associate Professor Mingshi Yang; e-mail: [email protected] ; www.sund.ku.dk

International applicants may find these links useful: www.ism.ku.dk (International Staff Mobility) and https://www.workindenmark.dk/.

Application procedure
Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. Furthermore, your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:

Deadline for applications: 31 December 2022, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in the weeks 3 and 4.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.