Two postdoc positions in rapid single cell antibiotic susceptibility tests on a silicon chip

Published: 2022-05-10

Electrification and digitalisation are among the largest areas for the future sustainable societies. The Department of Electrical Engineering conducts successful research and education in the areas - renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, industrial IoT, 5G communication and wireless sensor networks as well as smart electronic sensors and medical systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering is an international workplace with around 140 employees that all contribute to important engineering, energy and health challenges at the Ångström Laboratory.

The positions will be placed at Prof. Zhen Zhang’s group in the Solid-State Electronics division, the Department of Electrical Engineering. More information about the group

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Project description
Rapid antibiotic susceptibility tests (rASTs) are highly desired in modern clinical practice for quick selection of right antibiotics to treat infectious diseases at the early but critical stage. However, currently available testing methods normally require growth of bacteria into colonies, which usually take more than two days to accomplish a task. They are, therefore, not satisfactory for practical needs that require fast answers. Moreover, these methods are not applicable for slow-growing bacteria, or samples containing sub-populations of slow- or non-growing bacteria which can resume growth after the antibiotic attack. To understand if and how the sub-population of slow-/non-growing bacteria causes failure in infection treatments, rASTs at the single cell level is required. To address these challenges, our project aims at developing a novel Silicon (Si) chip based all-electrical testing platform to achieve rAST at single cell level. The success of this project will potentially provide a low-cost and rapid ASTs platform for effective infection treatments. It could also help to accelerate the development of new antibiotic drugs in the pharmaceutical industry.

Duties

• Design and fabricate the silicon sensor chip using our Ångström cleanroom facility.
• Design and fabricate the microfluidic system for single bacterial cell trapping with high efficiency (will be supported by our in-house Customized Microfluidics facility).
• Sensor chip integration with the developed microfluidic system; single cell rAST demonstration.

Requirements

• PhD degree in electrical engineering, microsystem, materials science, physics, chemistry, microbiology or biophysics or a foreign degree that is equivalent to correspond degree. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Those who have obtained a PhD degree three years prior to the application deadline are primarily considered for the employment. The starting point of the three-year frame period is the application deadline. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.
• Very good knowledge in written and spoken English are required. 

• We put an emphasis on your personal qualities such as good collaboration and communication skills with other researchers. You should be purposeful, structured and able to work effectively both individually and in groups.

Additional qualifications
Previous experience in semiconductor devices, microfluidics, electrochemical characterization or bacterial metabolism will be advantageous.

Application
You should include a brief description of your research interests and relevant experience, a CV, copies of diplomas and certificates, thesis (or a draft thereof) and other relevant documents. You are encouraged to provide contact information to reference.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of two years according to central collective agreement. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date 2022-08-01 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

For further information about the position, please contact: Professor Zhen Zhang, telephone +46 18-471 3131, zhen.zhang@angstrom.uu.se. 

Please submit your application by 15th of June 2022, UFV-PA 2022/1842.

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