Doctoral student in centrifugation for cell-based production of biological therapeutics

Third-cycle subject: Biotechnology

The focus of the project is the development of a new centrifuge device to support cell separation in culture process under perfusion mode for the production of biological drugs with mammalian or human cells. This new centrifuge device for cell separation will be designed for perfusion process, a process in which the culture medium is continuously renewed while the cells are gently retained in the bioreactor. The project will be carried out at KTH in Chotteau’s group CETEG, leader in high cell density perfusion for the production of biopharmaceuticals, in collaboration with the company AlfaLaval, leader in centrifuge technology, and will take place within AdBIOPRO . AdBIOPRO, Competence Centre for Advanced BioProduction by Continuous Processing, gathers Swedish universities and industries, and is funded by Sweden’s Innovation Agency. The project will include extensive interaction with AlfaLaval team for the development of the new centrifuge, and development, testing and validation of the device in high cell density perfusion process at KTH.

Supervision: Associate Professor Veronique Chotteau is proposed to supervise the doctoral student. Decisions are made on admission

• Veronique Chotteau’s group is the Cell Technology group (CETEG) at Dept. Industrial Biotechnology. Chotteau has a long experience of developing biopharmaceutical drug bioprocesses for human therapy, and is leader in high cell density perfusion for the production of biopharmaceuticals. CETEG's activities focus on the production of biological drugs, proteins and viral vectors, including perfusion process at very high cell density of mammalian/human cells and development of dynamic metabolism models. Chotteau is the Director of the Competence Centre AdBIOPRO for Advanced Bioproduction by Continuous Processing, Coordinator of the European project iConsensus within the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2), partner of the Competence Centre for Advanced Medical Product CAMP, partner in the Research Milieu GeneNova and partner of the Marie-Curie EU project STACCATO. The group includes researchers, post-doc and PhD students from diverse technical backgrounds and provides the necessary support to acquire the skill within mammalian/human cell technology for the production of biologics.
•  Alfa Laval, is a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling and is active in the areas of Energy, Marine, and Food & Water, offering its expertise products, and service to a wide range of industries in some 100 countries. Alfa Laval’s BU for High Speed Separators has its base for business and R&D in Tumba, south of Stockholm. The application and concept teams within R&D will be the partners to KTH in the above described development. Alfa Laval has 17 900 employees. Annual sales in 2021 were SEK 40.9 billion (approx. EUR 4 billion). The company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.  
• AdBIOPRO is an interactive Competence Center with high focus on multidisciplinary collaboration within academia and industry.
• The possibility to study in a dynamic and international research environment in collaboration with industries and prominent universities from all over the world.Read more
• A workplace with many employee benefits and monthly salary according to KTH’s Doctoral student salary agreement.
• A postgraduate education at an institution that is active and supportive in matters pertaining to working conditions, gender equality and diversity as well as study environment.
• Work and study in Stockholm, close to nature and the water.
• Help to relocate and be settled in Sweden and at KTH .

To be admitted to postgraduate education (Chapter 7, 39 § Swedish Higher Education Ordinance), the applicant must have basic eligibility in accordance with either of the following:

• passed a second cycle degree (for example a master's degree), or
• completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 second-cycle higher education credits, or
• acquired, in some other way within or outside the country, substantially equivalent knowledge

In addition to the above, there is also a mandatory requirement for English equivalent to English B/6, read more here

In order to succeed as a doctoral student at KTH you need to be goal oriented and persevering in your work. During the selection process, candidates will be assessed upon their ability to:

• independently pursue his or her work
• collaborate with others
• practical technical skill
• aptitude to apply theoretical skill in practice
• flexibility
• good written and oral communication skills
• have a professional approach and
• analyse and work with complex issues.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal competency. 

Only those admitted to postgraduate education may be employed as a doctoral student. The total length of employment may not be longer than what corresponds to full-time doctoral education in four years ' time. An employed doctoral student can, to a limited extent (maximum 20%), perform certain tasks within their role, e.g. training and administration. A new position as a doctoral student is for a maximum of one year, and then the employment may be renewed for a maximum of two years at a time.

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You will find contact information for doctoral section on the section's website .

Apply for the position and admission through KTH's recruitment system. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement.

Applications must be received at the last closing date at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/entral European Summer Time).

Applications must include the following elements:

• CV including your relevant professional experience and knowledge.
• Application letter with a brief description of why you want to pursue research studies, about what your academic interests are and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. (Maximum 2 pages long)
• Copies of diplomas and grades from previous university studies and certificates of fulfilled language requirements (see above) . Translations into English or Swedish if the original document is not issued in one of these languages.Copies of originals must be certified .
• Representative publications or technical reports. For longer documents, please provide a summary (abstract) and a web link to the full text.

Striving towards gender equality, diversity and equal conditions is both a question of quality for KTH and a given part of our values.

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Disclaimer: In case of discrepancy between the Swedish original and the English translation of the job announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.