PhD position in 3D-printing of medicines (1.0 FTE)

Traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing is not capable to deliver personalized medications on a large scale. Especially for solid dosage forms, technological solutions to enable personalized therapy are in dire need. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing is a highly innovative manufacturing technology that can enable mass personalisation of medicines. In this project, you will develop and design enabling powders for taste masking and increased drug loading for SLS 3D printing. You will investigate the performance and properties of the novel powders and printed medicines and optimize both, powder manufacturing and 3D printing. You will develop dosage forms for individualised therapy of paediatric and adult patients to facilitate and speed up the translation of SLS 3D printing to clinical application.
This project is a collaboration between Utrecht University and Glatt GmbH  in Binzen, Germany. Glatt GmbH is a world leading equipment manufacturer as well as development and manufacturing organisation with profound expertise in powder processing. The first year of the project will be spent at the site of Glatt GmbH to develop the powder formulations and manufacturing processes. The remainder of the project will be conducted in Utrecht.
You will take part in the PhD programme Drug Innovation of the Graduate School of Life Sciences , which will give you the opportunity to connect with other PhD candidates in your field and to follow courses.

• a Master degree or equivalent (e.g., Staatsexamen ) in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Engineering or a related field;
• a background in at least one of the following areas: physical pharmacy, physical chemistry, HPLC/UPLC analysis, powder characterisation, process development;
• preferably experience with solid state characterisation (e.g. XRD, DSC, TGA);
• demonstrable communicative skills in English, both in writing and speech;
• communication skills in German are beneficial.

• a position for 4 years ;
• a full-time gross salary that starts at €2,541 and increases to €3,247 per month in the fourth year (scale P of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities (cao));
• participation in the education programme of the Graduate School of Life Sciences;
• 8% holiday bonus and 8.3% end-of-year bonus;
• A pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities.

In addition to the employment conditions laid down in the CAO for Dutch Universities, Utrecht University has a number of its own arrangements. For example, there are agreements on professional development, leave arrangements and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment via the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we like to encourage you to continue to grow.
For more information, please visit working at Utrecht University .

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University , the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.
At the Faculty of Science  there are 6 departments to make a fundamental connection with: Biology, Chemistry, Information and Computing Sciences, Mathematics, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Physics. Each of these is made up of distinct institutes which work together to focus on answering some of humanity’s most pressing problems. More fundamental still are the individual research groups – the building blocks of our ambitious scientific projects. For an impression, please watch Working at the Faculty of Science of Utrecht University .
The Pharmaceutics division is one of five divisions within the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) and is an internationally renowned top-research group in the field of drug delivery. The core activity of the division is the design and pre-clinical testing of tailor-made drug delivery systems for small molecular weight drugs, therapeutic proteins, nucleic acids, and antigens. To this end, different manufacturing technologies are investigated and developed. The Pharmaceutics team consists of scientists from all over the world who like to work in a multidisciplinary environment in which fundamental research and applied sciences are interconnected.

For more information about this position, please contact Dr Julian Quodbach  (Assistant Professor Pharmaceutical Technology) via [email protected] or (+31)6 28 91 08 10.
Do you have a question about the application procedure? Please send an email to [email protected] .
For more information, please visit working at the Faculty of Science.  

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