PhD scholarship opportunity: Development of a Revolutionary Heart Assist Device

A PhD position is available at Monash University in collaboration with QHeart Medical to work on an intra-aortic balloon heart assist device project. A fully funded scholarship is available for the successful applicant for this project running under a Cooperative Research Centres Project (CRC-P) between Monash University and QHeart Medical and other prestigious research centres.

QHeart Medical is developing an interventionally implanted intra-aortic balloon (IAB) device for the treatment of hypertension and hypertensive heart failure. The goal is to develop a medical device therapy to address the unmet clinical need for the management of drug resistant hypertension and moderate heart failure (HF) which has high incidence, declining health, poor quality of life, and high mortality, and have huge treatment costs.

There is opportunity for the PhD candidate to be involved in different aspects of the research and development of the device, from mechanical & electronic design, fabrication (including FEA and CFD analysis), advanced nano-biomaterials, bench and animal testing, and clinical testing procedures.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (i.e. medicine / science/ biomedical / mechanical / materials / mechatronics / chemical),
• A passion for biomedical devices and or new clinical therapy development,
• Completed research experience (through undergraduate thesis, placements, or research assistant position),
• Full English professional proficiency.

The project has excellent supervision and mentoring from Professor Julian Smith, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Monash Health & Monash University, and Dr Peter Walsh, founder at QHeart Medical. Ideally the scholar will be based in Brisbane, Queensland, and enrolled through Monash University, however, alternative arrangements can be discussed.

• Check your eligibility for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at Monash University
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