Postdoctoral Researcher - Emerging & Communicable Infectious Disease Diagnostics

Postdoctoral Researcher - Emerging & Communicable Infectious Disease Diagnostics

DCU - Dublin City University

Dublin, Ireland

Background & Role

Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates to join the RAPID Institute (Research Advances in Personalised Integrated Diagnostics) Research Group in DCU. The goal of our Institute is to understand and exploit the role of epigenetics in diseases that are particularly governed by temporal changes in the epigenome (e.g. Neurodegenerative & Metabolomic diseases/disorders). The RAPID Institute works across 3 distinct technology pillars/platforms (e.g. benchtop, portable and wearable diagnostic devices) to delve into the emerging power of epigenomics, explore biochemical wearable sensors, and enable POC settings with rapid, affordable testing. These platforms will be interconnected in a way that impacts epilepsy, substance abuse and infectious disease in unprecedented ways.

The proposed Postdoctoral research role will fall within research as part of Pillar 3 - Emerging & Communicable Infectious Disease Diagnostics. PILLAR-3 will focus on the evolution of a more powerful and flexible technological counterpart to traditional LFI (i.e., centrifugal orthogonal flow immunoassay) for POC testing of the communicable diseases of interest. The appointed Postdoctoral candidate will be hosted in the School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, working under the direction of the Principal Investigator within the Institute’s interdisciplinary research team.

Given the analytical power conferred by process integration, it is interesting that microfluidics has had so little impact on POC testing. The lateral flow immunoassay (LFI) test for pregnancy may be the single most commercially successful microfluidic POC test ever (followed by recent surge in antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2). However outside of these examples, microfluidics has not contributed extensively to testing where it could have the most impact – emerging pathogens where infectious disease management and suppression is required, and where testing infrastructure is not available. A clear desire exists for bacterial infection results during the patient’s visit (not unreasonable within the realm of contemporary diagnostic testing technologies) to eliminate the guesswork of empirical medicine [Safran, 1998]. In particular, Neisseria gonorrhea (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) are the most commonly reported STIs in Europe. Yet, few portable, low-cost POC tests for such bacterial infections have surfaced. What is needed is a flexible platform that can shift the burden from hospital labs to the GP setting. We will develop a platform with two completely different disc-based tests for communicable diseases that interface with a single instrument. The first is an antigen-based immunoassay test rooted on research/IP from Prof. Landers’ work on the centrifugal Orthogonal Flow Immunoassay (cOFI), a more robust alternative to LFI. The second relies on amplification of bacteria-specific sequences in a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) developed on an elaborate disc architecture at DCU in collaboration with our manufacturing partner (Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology).

The proposed Postdoctoral research role will build on core technologies developed by both Prof. Landers and other members of our interdisciplinary research team and will lead (i) development of a disc-based Centrifugal Orthogonal Flow Immunoassay (cOFI) technology platform and (ii) development of a novel wireless electronics, co-rotating centrifugal disc platform. The team will create disc-based POC devices with two distinct approaches – one involves immunoassay for urine analysis, the other Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAAT) of swabs. Both the immunoassay and NAAT will focus on POC technology for bacterial infection associated with the communicable diseases GC and CT. For the first, we will leverage the Orthogonal Flow Immunoassay (cOFI) we have developed for infectious agent detection on polyethylene terephthalate discs. This disc- based system is a more robust alternative to LFI for urinalysis and can multiplex analysis (multiple pathogens) with simple colorimetric or smartphone detection. The second will exploit DCU’s dissolvable valves for complex, automated sample preparation that has previously been applied to blood processing and NAAT to process swabs. Both systems will be compatible with the same portable laboratory instrument which will be built on co-rotating wireless electronics platform.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the position include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• Conduct a specified programme of research within Pillar 3 involving design and bioassay integration within lab-on-a-chip/disc-based platforms, under the direction of the project PI;
• Leading all activities relating to the mechanical design, system design, implementation, and integration of during the development of a flexible diagnostic device platform, capable of being used for target-relevant biomarker panels and designed to integrate into current clinical lab workflows;
• Testing the developed instrument prototype under various conditions and working to validate the performance of the system, informing the system usability and design;
• Responsibility for leading the design and manufacturing of prototype devices, in collaboration with an associated team of postgraduate students;
• Support engagement with industry and other external parties in areas relevant to the project;
• Support reporting of project outcomes to SFI, including development and maintenance relevant design control documentation;
• Authoring of scientific publications, technical reports and marketing activities as may be required to support the commercialisation activities as required by the project;
• Engage in appropriate training and professional development opportunities as recommended/required by Dublin City University.

Minimum Criteria

Applicants should have a Ph.D. qualification in a relevant discipline In addition, the ideal candidate will have:

• It is desirable that the successful candidate has a M.Sc. or B.A. degree in molecular biology/biomedical mechanical/Electronic Engineering; Biomedical/Applied Physics or a related Engineering/Science degree;
• Practical laboratory experience designing and building experimental research platforms/ test-rigs/instrumentation. Proven aptitude for laboratory work and a hands-on ability to build, test and validate functional prototypes/breadboard instruments;
• Experience in microfluidics/Lab-on-a-Chip and micro-fabrication. Experience with heat- transfer in Lab-on-a-Chip;
• Experience and expertise in SolidWorks CAD, LabVIEW control software and data analysis techniques is highly desirable;
• Experience in common biochemical and molecular biology (nucleic acid) separation sequencing and amplification techniques/methods (e.g. NAAT, PCR, Sanger Sequencing);
• Experience with fluorescence detection of bio-samples particularly developing instrument systems;
• Experience building, testing, and validating functional prototypes/breadboard of laboratory instruments or test-rigs for biomedical experiments;
• Good communication and reporting skills.

Candidates will be assessed on the following competencies:

• Discipline knowledge and Research skills – Demonstrates knowledge of a research discipline and the ability to conduct a specific programme of research within that discipline;
• Understanding the Research Environment – Demonstrates an awareness of the research environment (for example funding bodies) and the ability to contribute to grant applications;
• Communicating Research – Demonstrates the ability to communicate their research with their peers and the wider research community (for example presenting at conferences and publishing research in relevant journals) and the potential to teach and tutor students;
• Managing & Leadership skills - Demonstrates the potential to manage a research project including the supervision of undergraduate students.

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