Postdoctoral Research Associate in Bone Biomechanics and Osteoarthritis

The Department of Oncology & Metabolism at The University of Sheffield provides a dynamic, exciting research environment with an internationally renowned portfolio of basic, clinical and translational research, encompassing the life course. The main areas of musculoskeletal research are in osteoporosis, childhood bone disease. Together with bone oncology these areas form the Mellanby Centre for Bone Research which is located within the Department alongside the MRC/ARUK Centre for Integrated Musculoskeletal research in Ageing (CIMA). All research activity is supported by state-of-the-art cell and molecular biology laboratories, dedicated clinical research facilities and access to the latest imaging technology including MicroCT, MR, NMR and PET scanning. The Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine is an initiative between the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sheffield and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. Insigneo intends to realise the scientific ambition behind the Virtual Physiological Human, producing a transformational impact on healthcare. Insigneo performs cutting edge research in areas of fundamental and applied biomedical modelling, imaging and informatics. Our team of academics has an international and interdisciplinary profile and a strong commitment to clinical and industrial translation with impact in future healthcare.

For more information on Insigneo please see our web pages: http://www.insigneo.org This role will be associated with the project OABONE, which aims to better understand the effect of osteoarthritis (OA) on the subchondral bone of the human femoral head. OABONE is a one-year project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which aims to use state of the art experimental, imaging and computational techniques to measure how the subchondral bone of the femoral head of osteoarthritic hips deforms under loading. The post holder will perform biomechanical time lapsed experiments within a microCT system of human femoral heads, develop the scanning protocol to perform high resolution images of the whole femoral head, apply a DVC approach to evaluate experimentally the deformation of the bone under load, and study the strain distribution within the femoral head under different loading scenarios by using micro-Finite Element models (microFE). Applicants should hold a PhD in Engineering, Physics or related disciplines, be familiar with bone biomechanics and with at least two of the following methods: bone mechanical testing, finite element modelling, microCT imaging and DVC. The post is full time for one year. The post holder will report to Dr Enrico Dall’Ara.