PhD in Biomedical Engineering

This research is part of a multidisciplinary and inter-university project RESSURG (REalistic Self-healing SURGical trainers), aimed at investigating the potential of self-healing polymers in the context of surgical trainers./nThe project is a collaboration between research groups at KU Leuven, VUB Brussels University, and imec./nThe proposed position at KU Leuven will be embedded in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics (STB) group, led by Prof. Nele Famaey, and the FIBEr Core facility for biomechanical experimentation./nThe STB group's mission is to improve mechano-compatibility in soft tissue applications through in vitro, in vivo, and in silico biomechanical analysis./nThe main goal of the RESSURG project is to achieve a new generation of surgical training phantoms that realistically simulate the biomechanics of their biological counterparts, have integrated sensors to track interactions during training and are fully reusable./nSpecifically, this PhD project will focus on the development of biomechanical digital twins of relevant organs and tissues, such as multi-layer skin patches, and the aorta in pathological and healthy state./nThe objectives are: 1) Validation of mechanical test methods for soft biological tissues through the use of repeatable and biomimetic synthetic materials. 2) Material characterization of biological tissues using multi-axial mechanical testing devices and constitutive law fitting. 3) Development of biofidelic finite element models using the obtained (localized) material properties.