PhD Position on “Combinatorial, High-Throughput Organoid Screens for Personalized Medicine”

Recent years have seen a surge in the development of microfluidic platforms for a wide diversity of applications, from diagnostics to new fundamental science studies. Microdroplet-based platforms (a particular branch of microfluidics capable of generating and manipulating identical, fL to nL-sized droplets at kHz rates) has spearheaded several revolutionary High-Throughput Screening (HTS) assays, notably for applications in single cell omics. Yet, other promising HTS applications of droplet-based microfluidics (such as drug screening) remain largely untapped due to the impossibility of current droplet generation strategies to handle drug libraries in a combinatorial manner.

The first phase of this project aims to develop a strategy to solve the aforementioned limitation of droplet-based technology by developing a hybrid microfluidic-liquid handling platform with the capacity of generating large droplet libraries with distinct chemical payloads. Your tasks will involve:

•  Designing, manufacturing and testing of novel microfluidic devices capable of rapid and multiplexed droplet formation.
•  Testing and applying amelioration strategies for stable long-term droplet storage and prevention of payload leakage/droplet cross-talk.
•  Setting up and operation of droplet screening systems and lab automation devices (e.g. liquid handling systems).

In the second phase of this project you will adapt this platform to enable the production of/experimentation with patient-derived organoids, with the aim of screening and selecting optimal combinatorial treatments for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients not eligible for registered modulator treatments (which currently comprise10% of the ofthe total population of CF patients)