PhD scholarship µFlow Cell

The Faculty of Engineering, Department Chemische ingenieurstechnieken en industriële scheikunde, is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant. 

More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains: 

µFlow Cell is a multidisciplinary research group of the VUB that works on the upscaling of microfluidics for pharmaceutical, biotechnological or medical applications.
µFlow Cell is recognized and supported by VUB as a Group of Excellence in Advanced Research (GEAR). The group has a number of research lines that are further developed with the financial support of the Brussels Government via Innoviris, the Flemish Government via FWO and VLAIO, the European Union via Horizon Europe, or through direct collaborations with interested companies.
To support the activities of µFlow Cell, VUB is also building a new cleanroom (MICROLAB) for microfabrication in silicon and glass for microfluidics. The cleanroom is under construction and will be operational in the first half of 2023. MICROLAB will have a floorspace of 550 m², of which 300 m² will be equipped with the most advanced machines for every essential production step in microfabrication.

µFlow Cell is now looking for a PhD student who will participate in the project 'Vortex enhanced liquid chromatography for HbA1c monitoring based diabetes management in a globalized setting (VortexLC)'. This research is supported by the European Union as a prestigious Pathfinder project. The project will be carried out in a multidisciplinary research team with groups from VUB, UZ Brussel, Joanneum in Austria, NCSR Demokritos in Greece and the French company Coating Plasma Innovation. The PhD student will work specifically on the development of a unique technology called vortex chromatography, in which electroosmotoc flows are used to induce lateral vortices in a chromatographic column, enabling complex separations at reduced pressure. It is a promising technique for the separation of blood and the accurate measurement of all hemoglobin variants. Since the method can be performed at low pressure, it also opens the door for implementation of the instrument in a ponit-of-care setting. With the help of the project partners, the aim is to manufacture these columns from a polymer, using nanoimprinting and plasma technology, a process that could ultimately be applied roll-to-roll on an industrial scale.

The doctoral student will at least be responsible for following tasks.
•    Construction of new experimental setups, ensuring their good functioning through proper maintenance.
•    Interact with other researchers and potential suppliers to continuously improve the setup.
•    Independently conduct experiments on these setups.
•    Design, analyse and report experiments.
•    Interaction with other academic and industrial research groups.
•    Prepare and possibly attend technical meetings with internal or external customers.
•    Maintain order, safety and quality in his/her workspace.

For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.