PhD Research Project: Reactive inkjet printing of biomaterials

This project will use the state of the art 3D reactive inkjet printer and regenerated silk fibroin, biocompatible polymers such as alginate and conductive polymers etc. as inks to fabricate a) 3D tissue culture scaffolds with well-defined architectures and porosities; b) enzyme powered micro swimming devices. The fabricated swimmers will be used for rare cell (e.g. circulating tumour cell) capture. The student will be lab based and will be trained to use modern techniques such as 3D reactive inkjet printing, AFM, SEM, TEM, interferometry, FTIR, CD etc. to fabricate the scaffolds and micro swimmers and characterize their properties. A combination of relevant cell assays will also be carried out to evaluate the biocompatibility and biological functions of the scaffolds and swimmers.
There is potential prospect that the student may find future employment in biotech/biomed industries.


For more information contact: xiubo.zhao@sheffield.ac.uk

Funding Notes

The DTG provides funds for studentships (fees + stipend for UK applicants, fees only for EU students) on a competitive basis. Applications are welcome up until the closing date. Overseas applicants will not qualify for DTG funding but self funded/externally funded applications are welcome