Postdoc Position Exposure and Safety Assessment of PFAS and PFAS-free Alternatives in Health Care

Postdoc Position Exposure and Safety Assessment of PFAS and PFAS-free Alternatives in Health Care

University of Antwerp - Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Antwerp, Belgium

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences of the University of Antwerp is looking for a full-time postdoctoral researcher to improve our understanding of the human exposure pathways of PFAS and PFAS-free alternatives in the health care sector, part of the EU HORIZON-IHI project PFAROS. This position will aim at performing high-quality research related to human exposure to PFAS (including F-polymers) from all types of production equipment, consumables, packaging, delivery devices, medical devices, complex machinery parts, and cleaning agents used in the health care sector. Existing data will be enriched with innovative measurements on leachables/extractables using advanced mass spectrometry techniques. The research will be executed at the Toxicological Centre of the University of Antwerp (TC, UA), Belgium, which has extensive analytical expertise and instrumental capabilities related to human exposure assessment and environmental and analytical toxicology.

Position

• You will contribute to mapping of PFAS use across healthcare to support substitution and risk assessment. Together with other project partners, you will categorize PFAS by properties and functions, compile toxicity, fate, exposure, and supply-chain data, and document potential PFAS-free alternatives.
• You will contribute to the chemical analysis of PFAS and PFAS-free alternatives in selected articles and products using state-of-the-art chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques, including (non-targeted) screening and cheminformatics approaches.
• You will contribute to the exposure assessment including extractables/leachables with the compilation of existing data, exposure modelling and analysis of selected scenarios using fit-for-purpose standardised methods (e.g. ISO, CEN etc.) or LC-HRMS and/or GC-HRMS. This includes human health exposure through leachables during use.
• For the tasks mentioned above, you will refine and implement existing analytical methods at the TC and validate new methods for PFAS in matrices of emerging interest.
• You will conduct research and publish your results to disseminate scientific insights.
• You will contribute to attracting external funding for the TC and will coordinate project proposals in the field of PFAS research.
• You will participate in the provision of academic services: you will represent the research group both internally and externally.
• You will build and maintain international scientific contacts.
• You will supervise and evaluate Master and PhD students with a view to successfully completing and defending their thesis.

Profile

• You hold a PhD in analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, biomedical or environmental sciences, pharmaceutical sciences or a similar discipline. The preferred candidate should have an excellent track-record of peer-reviewed publications in recognized journals in the field and experience with external funding.
• You have experience with target and non-target analysis of PFAS at trace levels (by LC and/or GC-(HR)MS) in different matrices. Additional experience with consumer (polymeric) products and leaching testing will be beneficial.
• You have experience in bioinformatics to process (HR)MS data for annotation workflows and statistical analyses.
• You are up-to-date with technical developments in the field of analytical chemistry and will integrate them in your research.
• Your research qualities are in line with the faculty and university research policies.
• You possess excellent English communication skills, both written and oral.
• You are available to work full time, with high motivation, good planning, communication, and organizational skills. You also act with attention to quality, integrity, creativity and cooperation.
• You can work effectively both independently and in team, as part of a multidisciplinary, international, and multicultural team; you can manage conflicting demands and meet deadlines.