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PhD in Biomedical Engineering: Preserving Human Heart Valves with a Bioreactor

Project 2585 · Eindhoven University of Technology · Department of Biomedical Engineering — Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology group

Application workspace

Save this opportunity and prepare around its actual requirements. Confirm deadlines and eligibility at the original source.

Read the research report View the recruitment source
Country or region
Netherlands
Application deadline
Until filled; check the notice for current availability.
Funding
Four-year salaried PhD employment; €3,204–€4,051 gross per month, plus 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end bonus.

The research opportunity

Research and methods

This full-time, four-year salaried PhD with Eindhoven University of Technology's Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology group develops dynamic-flow bioreactors to preserve living human donor heart valves outside the body. The work combines bioreactor design, tissue culture, microscopy and tissue analysis, with a translational focus and an interface with immunology. The saved material does not specify reactor configuration, flow parameters, preservation time, sample size, tissue endpoints or immunology protocol; these must not be assumed.

Salary, eligibility and application

  • The position lists €3,204–€4,051 gross per month, plus an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus.
  • The saved report lists a master's or equivalent in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering or a related field, cell and tissue culture experience, C1 English, a cover letter, CV and contact details for three referees; confirm these against the employer's application instructions.
  • The saved employer extract gives 30 November 2026 and says the position remains open until filled.
  • Separate project data adds 23:59 Europe/Amsterdam, but that time is not confirmed in the employer extract; check the application portal.
  • Apply through the university's official Varbi vacancy.
  • The team is identified, but no individual contact is named in the saved materials.
  • The saved report also describes a research-oriented attitude, scientific communication, collaboration and independent thinking as required; mechanobiology, bioreactors and preclinical research are advantages rather than strict requirements.
  • It lists no research-proposal requirement; confirm the package against the employer instructions.
  • The nine-month assessment, minimum 10% teaching over the appointment and annual 15% cap are reported employment terms, subject to confirmation for this vacancy.

Research context and collaborations

The project addresses paediatric valve replacement, where implants may not grow with the child and immune response or calcification can lead to further operations. It will study valve homeostasis during extended ex-vivo culture and use the results to guide controlled culture and feedback-enabled reactor design. This is model and preservation research, not a clinical trial or proof of an implant-ready valve.

The vacancy places the project between Marijn Peters’ paediatric cardiovascular regeneration and Carlijn Bouten’s cell–matrix teams, with mechanical and biomechanics collaborators Julie Legrand and Marcel Rutten. It connects to the BIOSHIELD consortium, including Utrecht/Wilhelmina and ETB-BISLIFE; collaboration does not imply a joint degree. Donor-valve allocation, frequency, permissions and facility access are not quantified.

The school offers professional development, while formal registration and doctoral coursework remain to be confirmed. The full-time salary is gross, not take-home; employee tax, insurance and housing costs depend on individual circumstances.

Research and application brief

Report generated: . This date does not confirm that recruitment remains open.

Information updated: . Recheck the original notice before applying.

Show report contents

PhD in Biomedical Engineering: Preserving Human Heart Valves with a Bioreactor

Quick Decision

Strong but verify fit. This four-year, full-time TU/e PhD develops dynamic-flow bioreactors to keep human donor heart valves viable outside the body. It combines mechanical design, sterile tissue culture and advanced analysis, with a pediatric cardiovascular focus: current replacement valves do not grow with children and can trigger immune responses and calcification. The strongest fit is an MSc-level mechanical or biomedical engineer with required cell/tissue-culture experience and C1 English, interested in mechanobiology, tissue engineering and translational research. The advertised salary is €3,204–€4,051 gross per month, plus holiday and year-end allowances. The official employer page confirms a 30 November 2026 deadline and says the vacancy remains open until filled; other recruitment information adds 23:59 Europe/Amsterdam, which was not shown in the employer information available. Apply early and verify the portal cutoff. Before accepting, clarify donor-valve access, doctoral registration, day-to-day supervision and net-pay/housing assumptions.

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

What Is Unsolved and Why It Matters

For children born with congenital heart disease, current valve replacements cannot adapt as a child grows. The official vacancy also describes risks of immune response and calcification that can lead to repeated invasive operations. The project develops a research capability: maintain living donor valves in culture outside the body for longer periods, study how they maintain homeostasis, and translate findings into controlled culture conditions and feedback-enabled bioreactor designs.

The central challenge is coupled: a valve is dynamic tissue whose function depends on opening and closing under flow, pressure and mechanical stimulation. A culture system must reproduce relevant conditions while preserving viability, sterility and useful function. This is a model-development project at the intersection of engineering and biology, not a clinical trial or a promise of a ready-to-implant valve. See the official vacancy details.

Work, Methods, and Potential Outputs

The advertised work includes flow-based bioreactor development, sterile vessel and tissue culture, and advanced microscopy and tissue analysis. The aim is to support extended culture and preservation, investigate valve homeostatic maintenance, and use that knowledge to define smart culture conditions and feedback-enabled designs. The vacancy does not specify culture duration, control conditions, flow profiles, pressure targets or viability endpoints, so these should not be supplied by inference.

A useful technical framing is to connect engineering inputs to tissue response: which flow and pressure conditions maintain cell and matrix integrity; which measurements distinguish viable from merely intact tissue; and whether feedback from those measurements can improve culture. A 2024 immune-shielding proof of concept informs the broader rejection challenge but does not establish long-term preservation. A 2024 review maps preservation strategies for pediatric replacement. A 2023 12-month sheep study on bioresorbable prostheses is a different technology and model, but illustrates that ex-vivo measurements and in-vivo performance are separate evidentiary steps. See the immune-shielding proof of concept, pediatric valve-preservation review and long-term sheep valve evaluation. Related work on blood–biomaterial interactions, tissue-engineering research convergence, preclinical extracellular-matrix strategies and soft robotic heart systems show adjacent engineering and regenerative-medicine directions; they are not promised PhD outputs.

School, Programme and Field Context

The position is embedded in TU/e's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Soft Tissue Engineering and Mechanobiology group. The vacancy places the project between Marijn Peters' pediatric cardiovascular regeneration team and Carlijn Bouten's cell-matrix work, with collaboration from Julie Legrand in Mechanical Engineering and Marcel Rutten in cardiovascular biomechanics. It aligns with a Dutch Heart Foundation-funded BIOSHIELD consortium, involving cardiothoracic surgery and transplantation immunology at University Medical Center Utrecht and Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, plus the ETB-BISLIFE Multi Tissue Center. These are described as collaborators; no joint degree or partner-institution enrollment is stated. See the group profile, cell-matrix research profile, Marijn Peters' profile, Carlijn Bouten's profile and the university's institutional profile and address.

The official vacancy describes four years of full-time employment, an intermediate assessment after nine months, at least 10% teaching across the appointment and no more than 15% in any year. It offers access to a PhD professional-development programme and high-end research facilities. The graduate-school registration procedure, required doctoral courses and degree-awarding process are not specified; confirm them with the department. TU/e's ranking profile lists it at #152 overall in QS World University Rankings 2027 (#140 in 2026); this is not a Biomedical Engineering subject ranking. No project-specific subject rank was verified. See the overall university ranking profile as broad context only.

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

The named supervision interface spans pediatric cardiovascular regeneration, cell-matrix interactions, mechanical design, soft robotics, biomechanical modelling and vascular bioreactors. This is aligned with work that must make engineering choices legible in biological readouts. The vacancy says the research environment offers high-end facilities and interdisciplinary collaboration but does not identify which flow loops, sensors, imaging platforms or tissue-analysis tools are ready versus to be developed. Ask how day-to-day supervision and project decisions are divided across the teams.

The tissue-bank partner matters for feasibility. ETB-BISLIFE heart-valve tissue information describes the donor-valve context, and its tissue-allocation information shows that access follows allocation processes. The Dutch government tissue-donation explanation adds regulatory context. These sources do not quantify how many valves the project will receive or prove that supply is a bottleneck; ask about expected frequency, selection criteria, consent and timing.

Funding, Application, and Living Cost

This is salaried university employment, not a stipend. The official vacancy gives a gross base salary of €3,204–€4,051 per month at full-time scale P, plus an 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end bonus. It also describes ABP pension participation, with TU/e paying 70% of the premium and the employee 30%; annual leave is 29 days and can rise to 41 days if weekly hours increase by two. At least 10% of the four-year appointment is teaching, capped at 15% in any year. These are gross terms, not a take-home estimate; tax status and personal circumstances affect net income. The vacancy mentions a Staff Immigration Team and tax-compensation scheme for international candidates, but eligibility and specific support are not guaranteed. Confirm salary progression, visa/tax arrangements and relocation costs before accepting.

The official vacancy gives a last application date of 30 November 2026 and says the position remains open until filled. Other recruitment information gives 23:59 Europe/Amsterdam, while the official page confirms the date but not the clock time. Treat the role as time-sensitive and verify the online portal cutoff. The stated application package is a cover letter, CV with publication list and contact details for three references, submitted online.

Eindhoven housing evidence is mixed and mostly student-facing. A 2025 local update reports nearly 4,250 student units and average student-room rent around €325 base or €400 including service costs. A November 2026 listing snapshot places the median at €672 across 66 student-rent listings. These are not guaranteed employee housing, and the observations differ in date and method. National student cost guidance is also not a PhD-employee budget. See national student cost guidance, Eindhoven student-housing information, local student-housing stock and cost update and a dated student-rent snapshot. Use current employee-market rent, utilities, insurance, transport and taxes to estimate affordability after confirming gross-to-net details.

Applicant Fit and Preparation

Required Background and Skills

The official requirement is a master's degree or equivalent in Mechanical Engineering with biomedical affinity, Biomedical Engineering or a comparable discipline. Cell and tissue culture experience is mandatory. The vacancy also requires fluent written and spoken English at C1, plus a research-oriented attitude, communication, collaboration and independent thinking.

Preferred Experience and Suggested Preparation

Mechanobiology, bioreactors and preclinical research are listed as added value, not strict requirements. Useful preparation includes sterile tissue culture, experimental planning, mechanical or fluid-dynamic reasoning, microscopy, tissue analysis and relating a flow or pressure condition to biological response. Applicants can show examples of reproducible experimental work and cross-disciplinary collaboration. A proposal is not listed among required materials; the stated package is a cover letter, CV with publication list and three reference contacts.

Next Actions and Questions to Verify

Before Applying

  • Confirm the exact local deadline and whether the vacancy remains open; the employer page says it may close when filled.
  • Check the portal's required documents and include a publication list and three referees with the CV.
  • Ask the graduate school about registration, coursework, degree award and the nine-month assessment.

At Interview

  • Ask how often donor valves are available, how they are selected, and which permissions and quality checks govern their use.
  • Ask which flow/pressure variables, culture duration and viability/function readouts are planned and what counts as success.
  • Clarify what bioreactor hardware and imaging facilities are ready versus expected to be developed.
  • Ask how teaching is scheduled and how the nine-month assessment is evaluated.

Before Accepting an Offer

  • Confirm day-to-day supervision and the formal role of each partner institution.
  • Obtain written salary progression, gross-to-net guidance, pension/insurance terms and eligibility for visa or tax support.
  • Build a current Eindhoven budget using employee housing evidence rather than student-room averages.

Evidence and Sources

Official opportunity, teams and training

Recent publications and scientific context

Donor-tissue context

Living costs and career environment

Sources

The listing may come from a university or recruitment platform. Check the notice and official sources in the report for current application requirements. View the recruitment source

Explore opportunities with related research or the same country, prioritising similar funding where relevant. Recheck each notice before applying.

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