Research Associate

Job Reference Number: UOS006297

Contract Type: Full-time, fixed-term start date of 1/9/2013 and an end date of 30/3/2017

Faculty: Faculty of Engineering

Salary: Grade 7 £28,685 - £32,267 per annum.

Closing Date: 6 May 2013

Summary:

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. While recently established, INSIGNEO is already considered one of worldwide-leading institutions in the area of in silico medicine research. For more information on INSIGNEO please see our web pages: http://www.insigneo.org/.

One of the strengths of INSIGNEO is our ability to generate individualised multiscale models of the neuromusculoskeletal system of a patient, to be used for diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment planning purposes. Under the supervision of Prof Marco Viceconti, internationally recognised expert in multiscale modelling of the musculoskeletal system, and of Dr Claudia Mazzà, specialist in human movement analysis and modelling, the post-holder will develop protocols for the generation of individualised multiscale biomechanical models of the musculoskeletal system, from imaging and motion analysis data. Such models are used to investigate the biomechanical and mechanobiological determinants of various diseases, such as osteoporotic fracture, osteoarthritis, etc. In particular, the post-holder will contribute to further development and application of these methods to the investigation of paediatric pathologies, such as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, in the frame of various collaboration that Prof Viceconti has with both local and international clinical research groups, including those in the frame of the European Integrated Project MD-PAEDIGREE.

The ideal candidate for this post would hold a PhD in Engineering, Physics, or related disciplines (or have equivalent experience), with a PhD thesis on musculoskeletal computational biomechanics, a good knowledge of musculoskeletal anatomy, physiology, and pathology, in depth knowledge of multi-body dynamics and finite element analysis, a good understanding of medical imaging and human movement analysis methods, and with some programming skills with Matlab and C language.

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