IF in the field of biomimetic multicomponent soft materials

Brief description of the institution:

The Universitat Jaume I in Castelló (UJI), founded in 1991, is the public university serving the north of the Valencian Community (Spain). UJI is now among the Top 500 universities in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 (ARWU), conducted by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.

The UJI hosts over 14,000 students and more than 2,000 researchers distributed in 27 university departments and 13 research institutes. Our university offers 32 undergraduate degrees, 47 State-regulated master’s degrees, 21 UJI-specific master’s degrees and 20 doctoral programmes. In this regard UJI has obtained a rating of excellence in teaching and research in the international U-Multirank ranking and the 500+ Gold Seal of European Excellence by the Excellence in Management Club.

Currently UJI is involved in 18 ongoing European research actions, including several European programmes (such as H2020, Interreg, SUDOE, LIFE, etc.). The UJI offers modern facilities and services to support research, such as the Central Scientific Instrumentation Service (SCIC), a Library, the Animal Experimentation Service (SEA), and the Office for Cooperation in Research and Technological Development (OCIT).

A specific program for newcomers helps researchers with the administrative procedures in order to become familiar with the facilities and standard practices, as well as an accurate integration. Moreover researchers can access additional services such as Sports Service, The University Residence, the Language Learning Centre (CAL) and the health centre.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group (including URL if applicable):

The Bioinspired Supramolecular Chemistry and Materials group (BIOSUPRAMAT; https://sites.google.com/a/uji.es/biosupramat/ ) at Universitat Jaume I has a broad experience in Supramolecular Chemistry with particular emphasis on the design of functional molecular gels (PI: Dr Beatriu Escuder, h-index: 31; supervision of 8 PhD thesis; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4350-3172). The group has expertise in the design and synthesis of functional self-assembling compounds, their study by instrumental techniques adapted for soft matter (spectroscopic and microscopic) and their application in biomimetic molecular recognition and catalysis. Following this background the current aims are directed to developing peptide based soft materials for applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Recently funded research lines include the design of functional peptide materials for regenerative medicine and multicomponent peptide-based materials for biomimetic catalysis

Project description:

The goal of the project will be to prepare biomimetic multicomponent soft materials by the combination of self-assembling polypeptides and low molecular weight peptide hydrogelators. For that purpose, we aim to develop reliable methodologies for the preparation and characterization of new materials based on the use of microfluidics. Those materials will be applied for encapsulation and transdermal release studies on skin models in close collaboration with PTS (http://pts-polypeptides.com/ ), a SME dedicated to tailored polypeptide manufacture for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotech applications, and Polymer Therapeutics Lab, a reference laboratory on biomedical applications of polymers. Short secondments at both partners will be planned. Candidates with a strong background on microfluidic technology for polymer and/or peptide self-assembly will be privileged although we are open to candidates with training on soft matter and biomaterials.

Applications

Please, submit the next documentation:

-         Complete CV

-         2 Reference letters