Modeling of Growth of Bacteria in Polysaccharide-Stabilized Multiphase Systems

The PhD research work will be carried out within the SusMat research group (Department of Chemical Engineering) of Prof. Wim Thielemans located on the Kulak Kortrijk campus of KU Leuven. The Sustainable Materials Lab combines fundamental and applied research towards the development of materials from sustainable sources. The SUSMAT group is very interdisciplinary and combines and applies knowledge from a molecular level over processing and characterization of the materials.
The SUSMAT group has fully equipped wet chemical labs, elemental analysis, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), light scattering, small and wide-angle x-ray scattering (S/WAXS), x-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS), dynamic scanning and isothermal titration calorimeter (DSC and ITC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, various linear and non-linear optical setups, rotational rheometers, and access to centralized high-field NMR spectroscopy and electron microscopy facilities. We also have access to centralized KU Leuven computing facilities and the Flemish Supercomputer Center.
Our research group at current consists of 10 PhD students, 3 postdoctoral researchers, a Research and an Industrial Research Fund Manager as well as a technician, and we also have numerous international scientific collaborations. More information on the group can be found through the link below.
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Project

Topic

This PhD project is part of the MSCA Doctoral Training Network project BIOMAC-BP aiming to develop bio-stabilized multi-phase materials as carriers for microbial pesticides. Current agricultural pest control is highly dependent on synthetic pesticides and these pose significant risks to the environment and human health. Microbial pesticides are promising alternatives to synthetic pesticides as they display greater specificity and reduced risk. 

The network, with funding for a total of 14 PhD students, is a combination of academic and industrial partners joining efforts to create and formulate economically viable biopesticides by incorporating bacteria with high pesticide production potential into polysaccharide-stabilized multiphase materials. This way we combine the potential of microbial pesticides with the interfacial stabilisation power and sustainability of bio-sourced particles to create the agricultural pest control of the future. We will also study their performance as well as their environmental fate and impact. 

Objectives of the PhD project

The primary objective of this PhD is to develop an analytic and computational understanding of the mechanisms by which bacterial colonies invade and thrive in complex geometric confinements, such as found in Pickering-Ramsden systems, i.e. particle-stabilized emulsions and bijels. A numerical code will be developed in collaboration with Prof. Joost De Graaf (University of Utrecht), extending the lattice-growth method to enable the study of colony proliferation in multiphase systems via growth and motility. Here, local nutrient concentration, flow, interfacial effects, and osmotic contributions will be incorporated, all of which are strongly affected by the complex geometry and boundary conditions. In collaboration with Dr. Marisol Ripoll (Forschungszentrum Jülich), we will adapt models to bijels. Proliferation model predictions will be compared to experimental results obtained by other PhD students at KU Leuven and ETH Zürich.  

This PhD project will be co-supervised by Prof. Joost De Graaf (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands) and Dr. Marisol Ripoll (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany).

Profile

We seek an enthusiastic researcher with a Master in Physics, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering or related field with a proven experience in C or C++ programming, or equivalent language, in addition to Python. Established knowledge in statistical mechanics, numerical modelling, and/or fluid dynamics is a plus.

Since the funding for this position is provided through the Marie Curie Sklodowska program, we can only consider candidates who have been resident in Belgium for more than 12 months over the past 3 years. 

Offer

We offer a fully funded PhD position with annual review of progress. 

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. ir. Wim Thielemans, tel.: +32 56 24 61 71, mail: wim.thielemans@kuleuven.be.

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