2 Posts available within the Biomaterials groups at the University of Manchester
Experimental Officer in Biomedical Materials – permanent position! – click here for more info and to apply.
The Henry Royce Institute (Royce) is an EPSRC-funded national institute. With its Hub at The University of Manchester, the Institute has spokes at nine Partner and Associate organisations: the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Cranfield, Oxford and Imperial College London, as well as at the UK Atomic Energy Authority and National Nuclear Laboratory. Royce, driven by a vision of ‘advanced materials for a sustainable society’, supports the UK in growing its world-leading research and innovation in advanced materials. Strategic investment in the Biomedical Materials research area has enabled us to develop comprehensive suites of equipment to ‘make, characterise and test’ biomedical materials which will help accelerate the development of advanced materials in the healthcare sector.
The Experimental Officer will be primarily responsible for managing the highly specialised equipment that form a suite of facilities, including containment level 2 cell culture laboratories, within the new, £105m Royce Hub Building. You will provide support for ongoing laboratory studies as well as overseeing the organisation and daily running of specific projects and practical courses in cell culture, molecular biology, and biomaterials/tissue engineering. You will actively participate in the broader community associated with Royce’s Biomedical Materials research theme, including researchers, students, industry collaborators and customers, and will provide support to facility users on the use of a wide range of scientific equipment and the interpretation of acquired data.
Closing date – 18th August 2021
PhD in metallic oesophageal stents – ideal for Materials Science graduate with an interest in improving outcomes for patients. Click here for more info and to apply.
Cancer Research UK describes 9,200 new cases of oesophageal cancer per year in 2017. 70% are diagnosed at a late stage, being incurable and causing 7,925 deaths / year.
Treatments using chemotherapy and radiotherapy – and more recently hormone therapy – have improved patient survival in recent years, extending survival of stent patients after receiving a stent from an average of 3months in 2004 to currently 15-18months. Most oesophageal cancers present late and are not curable and most patients eventually require insertion of a stent (most commonly a nitinol stent) to keep the lumen of the oesophagus and allow the patient to continue to eat.
These stents were originally designed for use in blood vessels but have been adapted for use in the gastro-intestinal tract and oesophagus therefore subjecting the stents to a different working environment especially chemical, due to exposure of the low pH of gastric acid, but also mechanical due to the movement and compression of oesophageal function (peristalsis). As a consequence an increasing number of patients experience device failure, requiring repeat procedures.
The re-intervention rate at 6months reaches 60%, which is now resulting in increased stent failures, which necessitate further procedures, and puts the patient at additional risk.
By improving the properties of these nitinol stents, we can improve their working life and remove the need for removal and replacement. This will improve clinical outcome and patient experience and reduce the need for repeat procedures and the associated costs to the NHS.
