Research Associate for Microfluidic and Acoustic-based Engineering of Microbubbles for Therapeutic Ultrasound

Location: South Kensington City

Contract: Full time and Fixed Term 24 months

Job Summary

We are seeking a postdoctoral Research Associate to develop a microfluidic and acoustic-based device for engineering microbubbles as part of our new “mosaic neuropharmacology” project. These microbubbles would be manipulated non-invasively using a custom-built focused ultrasound array to enable spatially-controlled delivery of drugs to precise regions of the brain. The ultimate aim would be to build a platform to manipulate neural circuits and transform the treatment of neurological neuropsychiatric diseases.

Duties and responsibilities

You will be tasked to design microfluidic channels that incorporate acoustic transducers to engineer microbubbles for therapeutic ultrasound. Select microbubble populations will be collected for chemical, physical, and structural analysis. This information will be used to iteratively modify both the microfluidic channels and the acoustic transducers for the next round of testing. In this way, we will arrive at a microbubble design that responds to ultrasound pulses in a deterministic way. This will be key for the next steps of the project where these microbubbles will be used to deliver drugs to precise regions of the brain

Essential requirements

• An ambitious and creative individual with an aptitude for solving unique and challenging problems with microfluidics or microfabrication.
• An independently-motivated researcher with a self-starter attitude but capability to work well within teams.
• A hardworking individual motivated by the vision and mission of our research programme.
• The opportunity to work on a “moonshot” research programme with the ambition of creating a breakthrough platform for manipulating neural circuits.
• The opportunity to work with world-leading experts.
• Immersion in Imperial College London and the Department of Bioengineering, a warm and collaborative environment alongside brilliant scientists and engineers.

Further Information

This is a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research at the interface of microfluidics, neurotechnology, non-invasive ultrasound and diseases of the brain. Your work would fit within a larger research programme involving 8 principal investigators, 4 post-doctoral researchers, and 3 PhD students from Imperial College London, King’s College London, University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £43,003 - £46,297 per annum.

This job is part of an Advanced Research + Invention Agency-funded project.

If you require any further details on the role please contact: Sam Au at s.au@imperial.ac.uk

Closing Date: 06/03/25

To apply, visit www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs and search by the job reference ENG03400.

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