Job offer

Université Gustave Eiffel; Marseille; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 80 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Une institution académique de premier plan recherche un candidat pour un poste de postdoctorant dans le cadre du programme Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Ce rôle passionnant implique la modélisation in silico de la croissance des tissus osseux et tendineux pour concevoir des structures de scaffolding optimales pour l'ingénierie tissulaire. Le candidat travaillera en étroite collaboration avec un superviseur pour développer une proposition de recherche innovante, visant à améliorer l'intégration des implants. Ce projet offre une opportunité unique de contribuer à des recherches de pointe tout en acquérant des compétences précieuses dans un environnement collaboratif et dynamique.

Qualifications

• Doctorat requis dans des domaines liés à la mécanique ou l'ingénierie biomédicale.
• Compétences en simulation numérique et optimisation nécessaires.

Responsabilités

• Modélisation de l'ingrowth des tissus osseux et tendineux.
• Développement d'un code d'optimisation topologique pour les structures poreuses.

Connaissances

Mécanique des milieux continus

Mécanique des biomatériaux

Simulation numérique

Optimisation

Programmation (Python, MATLAB)

Formation

Doctorat en Mécanique

Doctorat en Ingénierie biomédicale

Doctorat en Simulation numérique

Outils

COMSOL

Abaqus

ANSYS

Description du poste

Biological sciences » Biological engineering

Computer science » Programming

Medical sciences » Health sciences

Physics » Computational physics

Engineering » Mechanical engineering

Organisation/Company: Université Gustave Eiffel

Department: LBA

Research Field: Biological sciences » Biological engineering, Computer science » Programming, Engineering » Simulation engineering, Medical sciences » Health sciences, Physics » Computational physics, Engineering » Mechanical engineering

Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1), Recognised Researcher (R2)

Positions: Postdoc Positions

Country: France

Application Deadline: 25 Apr 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract: Not Applicable

Job Status: Not Applicable

Offer Starting Date: 1 May 2026

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Université Gustave Eiffel is looking for a candidate to apply for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the framework of the Marie-Sklodowska Curie Programme 2025.

The Candidate and Université Gustave Eiffel's supervisor will apply together to develop the following research project: In silico modelling of the growth and guidance of bone and tendon tissues to design optimal porous scaffold structures for tissue engineering.

This postdoctoral position is part of a proposal to be submitted for funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Global Postdoctoral Fellowship program. The fellowship is contingent upon the selection and approval of the proposal by the European Commission. The successful candidate will work closely with the supervisor to co-develop (from April 9th, 2025 to September 10th, 2025) and submit the funding application, which will include a detailed research plan and a personalized Career Development Plan.

If the application is successful, the project will start at the earliest in May 2026.

1. Context and Summary

Medical Needs:
Bone diseases or traumas often require the replacement of damaged tissues by titanium implants, aiming to relieve pain and recover physical function particularly in surgeries involving malignant bone tumors, revision arthroplasty, periprosthetic fractures, and infections (Siddiqi2021). The replacement of major bone defects with titanium implants raises the problem of osseointegration and the reattaching the muscles required for essential biomechanical functions such as normal walking. However, tendon insertion on implant surfaces remains highly challenging (Fenwick2002).

Research Question:
What are the optimal porous micro-architectures of the implant promoting both osseointegration and the reconstruction of a tendon insertion by guiding the growth and invasion of tendon tissue?

State-of-the-art and Project Positioning:
Porous Titanium implants are widely used due to their mechanical strength and biocompatibility potential, but studies on osseointegration and tendon integration remain limited. High-porosity structures promote stability and integration during early tendon attachment stages. Pore size of ~500μm is proposed for best tendon ingrowth (Zheng2021).
Porous titanium structures that mimic the micro-architecture of trabecular bone are considered useful for guiding tissue formation due to their connected porosity, making them suitable for tissue scaffolds. However, trabecular bone's primary function is to provide mechanical support, not to guide tissue ingrowth, which may limit its effectiveness for this purpose.
Surface area, hydrophilicity, and roughness play a significant role in guiding tissue growth. While trabecular bone-mimicking structures have a high porosity that offers a large contact surface for tissue, their cylindrical shape limits this contact. Alternative structures that maximize surface interaction might better guide tissue formation. Fractal surfaces or hollowed gyroid surfaces have been proposed for tissue engineering (Germain2018) but are not fully optimal for tendon tissue guidance (Guo2022).
Current attempts to design scaffolds for tissue engineering are based on the proposal of a basic structure from which various structures are generated and tested in silico, in vitro, or in vivo.
Dynamics of tissue growth are not included in the design process.

Research Hypothesis:
Considering the dynamics of ingrowth dynamics of bone and tendon tissues should improve the live designing of dedicated scaffolds.

Technical Gap:
Experimentally and blindly testing different scaffold designs for bone and tendon tissue growth is challenging. Moreover, live testing of adaptive, mobile scaffolds in cell culture requires an interactive set-up in which the operator can modify the cell environment as the epithelium or tissue grows, which is technically impossible at present.

Objective:
The concept of the project is precisely not to start from a proposed structure but to start from the characteristics of the growing tissue and its ability to actively adhere to the surface of the implant, to generate traction forces to propel itself, to proliferate on its surface and thus colonize the free space. We propose to design such a smart scaffold, first in silico.
The Post-Doc will combine a topological optimization code with a mechanobiological model of tendon tissue ingrowth to design optimal scaffold. This scaffold will be manufactured by 3D printing by managing the appropriate state material surface for tissue conduction. The scaffold will then be tested in vitro and in vivo to bring a definitive proof of concept.

Methodology to reach the objectives:
1) Modeling tendon tissue ingrowth in interaction with a surface
The Post-Doc will model the ingrowth of bone and tendon tissues by using phase-field modelling. Phase-field models address interfacial problems. They replace boundary conditions with a differential equation for a phase field that defines a diffuse interface, eliminating explicit boundary conditions. Phase-field models have been developed to represent the active process of cell adhesion and migration depending on intracellular forces generation and on substrate properties (Moure2017, Winkler2024). Several studies proposed phase-field models for application to fundamental tissue growth (Jeong2017).

The Post-Doc will simulate the spontaneous motion of a tissue in interaction with a substrate.
The active motion of the tissue is produced by both cell division on one hand and cell adhesion and cell contractility on the other. These cellular processes will be modeled. The tissues will have the capacity of growing in free space and by adhering on the surface of an implant. Various active properties of the implant surface will be simulated. The Post-Doc will use computational methods based on isogeometric analysis to compute tissue surface state.

2) Simulating topological optimization of the porous structure promoting the invasion of bone and tendon tissues
The Post-Doc will develop a topological optimization code whose objective function is precisely the maximization of tissue growth and invasion. This type of calculation will not presuppose a typical structure or a target structure. The final structure will be the result of modelling the dynamics of tissue growth. This structure will be the one that best accompanies the dynamics of tissue growth.

The model of tissue growth interacting with the substrate will show the emergence of tissue and cell behaviors, such as the synergy between the tensile forces at the adhesion zones and the pressure forces within the tissue due to cell proliferation. Optimal ratios of pore width to cell size, surface area to volume ratio, or surface area to diameter ratio will naturally emerge.
In the phase-field simulation, active properties will be given to the interface between the tissue and implant, and simulation of topological optimization of the interface will be launched with the objective function of maximizing tissue penetration while ensuring the mechanical integrity of the scaffold structure. Loading of tendon due to muscle traction will be included in the simulation.
Combinatorial or genetic management will allow to reduce considerably the parameters to be evaluated.
The proposed approach will identify adequate scaffold structures as a solution to a multivariate topological optimization problem that will be based on a mechanobiological model.

Innovative nature and ambitiousness of the project:
The Post-Doc will simulate the shaping of porous micro-architecture by considering the dynamics of tissue ingrowth in live, during the simulation. This is completely new and could deliver smart structures for guiding tendon ingrowth.

Scientific coordinator Quality:
Jean-Louis Milan (MCF HDR) has developed computational mechanobiological modelling of cell and tissue dynamics to understand how cells interact with implant surfaces and synthesize peri-implant tissue. He has succeeded in simulating in vitro-validated mechanisms of cell adhesion and cell migration guided by sinusoidal curved shapes of static substrates (Project Sinus Surf ANR-12-BSV5-0010). Jean-Louis Milan has built the in silico concept of the MovingCells project by extrapolating the use of his in-silico cell model into cell environments that change their shape dynamically to guide cell migration over large distances. He is currently leading the ANR MovingCells project (ANR-22-CE45-0010) dedicated to that goal. Over the past 15 years, Jean-Louis Milan has supervised 4 Post-Docs and 7 PhD students who have all pursued their research activities in the field.

2. Planned secondments

Academic partnerships with Pr Damien Lacroix from Sheffield University, England and/or Glad Medical (Bitech Dental), French entreprise, could be established.
Secondments will be decided with the candidate.

Minimum Requirements

PhD in Mechanics, Biomechanics, Medical Engineering, Numerical Simulation.

Technical Skills:
• Knowledge of continuum mechanics, biomaterial mechanics, and numerical simulation.
• Experience with optimization and/or numerical simulation tools (e.g., COMSOL, Abaqus, ANSYS, or equivalent).
• Programming skills (Python, MATLAB, or equivalent).

Personal Qualities:
• Analytical mindset, scientific rigor, and creativity to propose innovative solutions.
• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary environment combining mechanics, biology, and numerical simulation.

Languages: ENGLISH Level Basic

Additional Information

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD and who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral mobility. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will be open to excellent researchers of any nationality.

The scheme also encourages researchers to work on research and innovation projects in the non-academic sector and is open to researchers wishing to reintegrate in Europe, to those who are displaced by conflict, as well as to researchers with high potential who are seeking to restart their careers in research.

Fellowships will be provided to excellent researchers, undertaking international mobility either to or between EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, as well as to non-associated Third Countries. Applications will be made jointly by the researcher and a beneficiary in the academic or non-academic sector.

Eligibility criteria

Before applying, please make sure you check the eligibility criteria to apply to the Post-doctoral Fellowship Call 2025:

For EUROPEAN Fellowship:
- You must commit to submitting only one proposal to the call 2025 with one institution, Université Gustave Eiffel.
- You must be postdoctoral researchers/have successfully defended your thesis at the date of the MSCA PF call deadline (September 10th, 2025). The successful defence must be unconditional (no further requirements/corrections that need to be addressed) and take place before the call deadline.
- You must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research (from date of PhD award). Years of experience outside research and career breaks (e.g. due to parental leave) will not count towards the amount of research experience.
- You must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in FRANCE (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline.

Selection process

Université Gustave Eiffel is looking for a candidate to prepare a joint application to the next Post-doctoral Fellowship call under the MSCA programme (deadline for the MSCA application: September 10th 2025).

3 - Send the Application form AND a Curriculum Vitae to the supervisor of the research project (Jean-Louis Milan, [e-mail]) before April 18th, 2025.

4 - The supervisor will reach you and discuss possible joint application for the incoming MSCA-PF 2025 call.

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available: 1

Company/Institute: Université Gustave Eiffel - LBA laboratory

Country: France

City: Marseille

Postal Code: 13916

Street: Faculté de Médecine - Secteur Nord Boulevard Pierre Dramard