PhD Student: Novel antimicrobial strategy development for medical implants

About your role
We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic PhD candidate for the recently started project DARTBAC: Dutch Antimicrobial Resistance Technology development and Biofilm Assessment Consortium. The performance of novel antimicrobial technologies involving biomaterial applications will be evaluated in ex vivo and in vivo systems, in particular in mouse models of bone or subcutaneous implant infection. You will tailor these models for testing of release systems/coatings with (novel) antimicrobial agents such as synthetic antimicrobial and antibiofilm peptides (SAAPs), photosensitizers, or bioactive glass for their antimicrobial capacity. Subsequently, you will assess the efficacy of novel systems in these models against multi-drug resistant bacteria. Since antimicrobial efficacy is also critically dependent on the host immune response, detailed studies will be performed to analyse cellular immune responses, inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and their regulation. In this way, novel antimicrobial biomaterials can be developed based on the so-called ‘safe-by-design’ principle.
You can find more information on the DARTBAC consortium on the DARTBAC website .

The project
The DARTBAC project aims to develop novel antimicrobial technologies, not based on antibiotics, to target infection prevention and eradication in all tissues and on implant (biomaterial) surfaces. In this way we aim to help prevent the rise of the anti-microbial resistance, which will constitute a major societal impact. DARTBAC is an interdisciplinary consortium consisting of academic partners, technical universities, university medical centres, small and large medical device companies with antimicrobial technologies and knowledge institutes.