PhD in Soft and Flexible Technology for Responsive Epileptic Seizure Treatment

 

Project background: Soft and Flexible Technology for Responsive Epileptic Seizure Treatment
The offered PhD position is embedded in the BOF-GOA project SOFTRESET (Soft and Flexible Technology for Responsive Epileptic Seizure Treatment), funded by Ghent University with 1.6 million Euros. This project aims to develop technology for targeted therapy of focal epilepsy based on the therapeutic effects of deep brain stimulation using innovative soft probes for both the recording of the epileptic brain region and its optical stimulation.
You will be part of a multidisciplinary team of 5 PhD students with interconnecting projects, under the guidance of top researchers from several teams at Ghent University at the faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, and Sciences: 4Brain, imec-CMST, imec-Waves, PBM-UGent, and Neural Waves.

PhD Research: Development of implantable soft electrical interfaces for neural interrogation.
You will be in charge of the development of soft electrical neural interfaces consisting of passive electrodes and active bioelectronics, based on internal ion gated organic electrochemical transistors (IGTs) including the read-out circuit. In addition, you will work, with other PhD students, towards the integration of electrical interfaces and optical waveguides into a combined electrical-optical soft probe and the fabrication of a fully implantable system for Responsive Epileptic Seizure Treatment.
- Development of soft and conformable electrical neural interfaces.
- Integration of electrical interfaces and optical waveguides into a combined electro-optical soft probe.
- Multidisciplinary research.
- Material selection
- Design, fabrication, and testing
- Micro-processing in a cleanroom environment
- Implantation experiments under the guidance of a post-doc

Job profile

Applicants should hold an academic university degree (Masters or equivalent) in Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Chemistry or other Engineering fields such
as Electrical, or Biomedical Engineering.
Excellent written and oral English skills are required.
Coding skills (Matlab), cleanroom experience, and experience with writing scientific papers are a plus.

How to apply

Applications should include a CV, motivation letter, copies of higher-education degrees, grade transcripts, and the name and contact details of two persons who are willing to give a reference. All documents should be sent electronically (in pdf) to: georgios.spyropoulos@ugent.be. Please mention “PhD_SOFTRESET” in the subject line. Inquiries about the position can be directed to Prof. Spyropoulos (georgios.spyropoulos@ugent.be).