项目介绍

2024年9月16日

Function

Have you ever wondered how animals are capable of impressive feats such as climbing effortlessly on walls? Are you eager to understand how these fascinating manifestations at the macroscale are originated at the microscale? Are you interested in developing bio-inspired technologies that can contribute to improving agriculture, medicine, and other industries? Are you a creative thinker, eager to tackle an exciting physical chemistry project using state-of-the-art facilities across two multidisciplinary and collaborative departments? If so, this might be the perfect PhD position for you!

What will you do?

• Microfabricate gecko-inspired structures with surface-supported lipids;
• use atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy, interferometry, and fluorescence microscopy to image and characterize these adhesive structures;
• develop analytical and computational models to better understand the underlying physicochemical processes dictating adhesive and lubricating performance;
• use these minimal systems to better understand gecko and insect adhesion, and their evolution and ecology;
• collaborate with roboticists to translate these structures to agricultural and medical robots.

Project description
Lipids are amphiphilic molecules that form a variety of self-assembled structures, such as micelles, bilayers, and vesicles, and serve a crucial role as the interactive boundaries of living cells and organelles. Additionally, at the multicellular level and macroscopic length scales, they serve versatile functions, such as their newly discovered role in gecko adhesion. Gecko’s sticky toes are covered by millions of microscopic hairs (setae) that generate adhesion via weak intermolecular forces. However, recent observations have found a layer of phospholipids on the setae, which may hinder these forces, introduce hydrogen bonding and capillary and electrostatic forces, and facilitate peeling by serving as a sacrificial, lubricating layer. Additionally, lipids in the liquid footpad secretions of insects may serve crucial roles in their reversibility, possibly aiding in detachment. In this project, we aim to uncover the implications of surface-supported lipid assemblies on the adhesion and lubrication properties of gecko setae and insect footpads using biomimetic models and numerical modelling. This interdisciplinary approach may further shed light on the role of lipids in other systems, like the lubricating and protecting tear film of vertebrate eyes, and lead towards development of bio-inspired adhesives, such as soft grippers for harvesting crops in agrotechnology.

The development of bio-inspired technologies, such as soft grippers, will be pursued in collaboration with the 4TU Dutch Soft Robotics consortium, with partners in TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, University of Twente, University of Amsterdam, and AMOLF, as well as the Agricultural Biosystems Engineering group at Wageningen University.

Function Requirements

• you have an MSc degree (or equivalent) in biophysics, soft matter, nanotechnology, physical chemistry, biomimetics, mechanical/chemical engineering, or a related field;
• you have a strong affinity for interdisciplinary research and the capacity to dive into unexplored areas;
• prior experience in surface chemistry, microfabrication, atomic force microscopy, interferometry techniques, or programming and coding is a plus;
• you are capable of working independently but are also a good team player;
• you have good communication and presentation skills.

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Contactinformation

For more information about this position, Dr. Siddharth Deshpande (assistant professor), e-mail: siddharth.deshpande@wur.nl and Dr. Guillermo Amador (assistant professor), email: guillermo.amador@wur.nl.

For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips (corporate recruiter), e-mail: rutger.voorips@wur.nl.