Space physiology: exploring bone and cardiovascular adaptations in real and simulated microgravity through longitudinal 3D CT imaging correlated with blood biomarkers and cardiovascular phenotypes

We are looking for a candidate for a 36-month PhD fellowship, to be awarded through a two-step selection procedure. The research project is interdisciplinary, combining physiology, image analysis and statistics to understand the skeletal and cardiovascular adaptation to microgravity.

Project and job description:

The project aims to characterise and understand bone remodelling and its association with concurrent cardiovascular, metabolic and inflammatory alterations in the settings of spaceflight and the space-flight analog of bedrest. This will be achieved through longitudinal 3D bone imaging (high resolution X-ray tomography, HR-pQCT) and profiling of blood biomarkers, to be correlated with cardiovascular, metabolic and inflammatory phenotypes collected in parallel from the same subjects. The goal is to reveal the mechanistic bases of impaired skeletal functions associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disturbances and to define new early biomarkers of bone adaptation and health.

This project will rely on primary imaging data and blood samples that are being collected by the laboratory in on-going studies organised by ESA, NASA and CNES.

The PhD candidate will process and analyse this wealth of data and parameters. She/he will

1. improve image analysis for the description and quantification of bone microarchitectural changes over time
2.  complete the biochemical profiling of inflammatory, metabolic and bone turnover markers in serum samples
3. employ state-of-the-art statistical methods for correlative studies of bone, biochemical and cardio-vascular phenotypes, these last ones collected by collaborators from the same subjects.

Such multidisciplinary and integrative novel approaches will be developed for human spaceflight, but will be relevant for diseased, multi-morbid populations on Earth, in particular those affected by bone fragility and osteoporosis resulting from sedentary lifestyle, disuse/mechanical unloading and aging.

Host lab:

SAINBOSE-LBTO (laboratory of bone and joint tissue biology) has strong expertise and an international reputation for studies on bone physiology, carried out at the cell, tissue and organism level, in particular related to bone deconditioning in astronauts and “space models”. It has maintained a decades-long collaboration with NASA, ESA and the French Centre for Research on Space (CNES). We carry out basic, translational and clinical research related to osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The combined skeletal and cardiovascular deconditioning of astronauts and the interplay between the skeleton, metabolism, inflammation and the cardio-vascular system are among our main interests. The laboratory has unique access to astronauts’ and cosmonauts’ data and samples and to platforms for microgravity analogues. It enjoys access to excellent facilities, the support of permanent staff and a nice group of French and international undergraduate and graduate students. The unit also includes medical doctors, engineers and statisticians and fosters a culture of interdisciplinarity and collaboration.

https://sainbiose.univ-st-etienne.fr/fr/index.html