Clinical perspective of the study:

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease, marked by cartilage degeneration, pain and loss of mobility, which cannot be prevented effectively. In Europe, over 40 million people suffer from osteoarthritis. In the U.S., the total medical costs and earnings losses due to OA are $136 billion. Articular cartilage, which acts as a cushion between the bones thereby facilitating proper function of the joints, is greatly damaged in OA. This leads to severe pain and loss of flexibility in the joints.  Since articular cartilage has very limited capacity to heal by itself, clinical interventions are necessary to regain joint functioning. 

Problem statement: 

OA is a multifactorial disease that involves a complex interplay of biochemical and biomechanical factors happening at different length and time scales. To delineate this complex interplay, recent works in our team have focused on developing multiscale in silico models of human knee joint to study the initiation and progression of OA, by combining finite element models at different length scales with intracellular gene regulatory network models. Additional in silico work has focused on developing the proper tools to analyse scRNAseq and spatial transcriptomics data. In addition, we have worked on establishing in vitro models (cartilage-on-chip and organoids) and in vivo models (mice and mini-pig) to inform and validate the models and work on their translation to the clinics. 

The proposed project will build up on the previous works, to complete the feedback loop of the multiscale workflow in order to predict how changes in cellular-level affect tissue level mechanical properties by using computational homogenization techniques. A continuous effort following targeted and untargeted (omics-based) approaches will take place to explore biological hypotheses and implement relevant model extensions. In parallel, computational upscaling tools will be implemented to prepare the model for execution of in silico trial simulations on virtual patient cohorts. The first in silico trial will investigate the effect of model-predicted drug combinations after experimental confirmation in a rodent model. The second trial will seek to optimize tissue engineered constructs for deep osteochondral defect regeneration, followed by experimental validation in a small and large animal model.

Profiles & expertise

For this project, we are looking for PhD students and/or postdocs with interdisciplinary profiles. 

• Multiscale modeling, biomechanics & in silico trials: Experience in working with commercial finite element packages like Abaqus and their coding subroutines. Knowledge of soft-tissue mechanics, non-linear mechanics. Interest in computational biology, experience in coding with Matlab, R or Python.
• Intracellular modeling & bioinformatics: Experience with in silico bioinformatics pipelines for analysing bulk and single cell RNAseq datasets. Experience with gene regulatory network modeling. Experience in coding with Matlab, R or Python. Interest in multiscale modeling. 
• Biomedical sciences & organ-on-chip: Experience in working with organoids or organ-on-chip set-ups and relevant analysis tools (imaging, molecular analysis). Interest in computational modeling and tissue engineering. 

Job admin: 

Hiring Institution: University of Liège or KU Leuven (depending on the type of work to be done) 

Website: http://www.biomech.ulg.ac.be 

Type of contract: 36 months (postdoc) or 48 months (PhD student) (in yearly contracts)

Job status: full-time, 38 hours per week. Belgian universities offer very attractive employment conditions related to salary, healthcare, child care and other benefits. 

Offer starting date: as soon as possible

EU Research Framework: HEU ERC-CoG

Application Process:
All candidates are expected to provide at least the following documents:

• Statement of purpose: past research experience, motivation for applying to this particular (PhD) project, academic fit, contribution of the project to the candidate’s future careers plans, ...
• A full CV
• Three reference letters or contact details for the references

Candidates preselected based on the above information will be invited to an interview through which the motivation, the proactive behaviour, the capacity to work collaboratively, the organizational skills and the communication skills will be assessed. After this, a second interview can be organised where the capacity to engage in a scientific discussion on the project-related material (based on provided literature) will be assessed.

All documents must be sent by email to the Principal Investigator of the proposed project (Prof. Liesbet Geris -  liesbet.geris@uliege.be), the local project manager (Dr. Bernard Staumont – b.staumont@uliege.be) before 31/10/2024. The title of the application email should be “ERC PhD/postdoc position Biomech Research Unit” in order to ensure correct processing.