Postdoc Multi-Scale Mechanobiological Cardiac Growth and Remodelling

Postdoc Multi-Scale Mechanobiological Cardiac Growth and Remodelling

Challenge:
Predict long-term cardiac growth and remodeling in cardiovascular disease.
Change:
Develop multi-scale mechanobiological models for virtual human twins.
Impact:
Advance patient-specific modeling of disease progression and treatment response.

Cardiovascular disorders often progress over months to years through complex interactions between myocardial mechanics, tissue adaptation, systemic hemodynamic and biochemical regulation. To understand and predict these processes, virtual human twins need to move beyond acute simulations of cardiac function and incorporate long-term growth and remodeling of the heart.

At Delft University of Technology, we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to develop next-generation computational models of cardiac growth and remodeling within VITAL:
Virtual Twins as Tools for Personalized Clinical Care
, a European Union-funded Horizon Europe project. VITAL develops clinically relevant virtual human twin technology for personalized cardiovascular care. Within the consortium, TU Delft contributes expertise in cardiac mechanics, soft tissue modeling, growth and remodeling, machine learning, and uncertainty-aware model personalization.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will develop, implement, and analyze cardiac growth and remodeling models in finite element frameworks for cardiac mechanics. Your work will focus on bio-chemo-mechanical and constituent-specific remodeling laws that describe chronic changes in myocardial structure and function. You will couple tissue-level cardiac mechanics to systemic hemodynamic and neurohumoral inputs within the VITAL consortium and contribute to patient-specific or cohort-level virtual human twin simulations.

You will also contribute to patient-specific model calibration workflows, including sensitivity analysis, uncertainty-aware parameter estimation, surrogate modeling, and reduced-order modeling where relevant. The scientific emphasis is mechanics-first: we are looking for someone with strong foundations in nonlinear mechanics, finite element modeling, and multi-scale biomechanics who is motivated to work at the interface of cardiac mechanobiology, machine learning, and scientific software development.

You will be part of the lab of dr. ir. M. Peirlinck in the Department of Bio Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft. Our group combines nonlinear mechanics, computational modeling, experimental and clinical data, and machine learning to understand and predict the behavior of cardiovascular tissues and organs across scales. You will work closely with PhD students, MSc students, and international VITAL partners.

This is a full-time, on-site postdoc position based at TU Delft in Delft. The initial appointment is for one year, with the possibility of extension, subject to progress and project conditions.

In this role, you will:

• Develop bio-chemo-mechanical cardiac growth and remodeling laws for chronic changes in myocardial structure and function
• Implement these laws in finite element cardiac mechanics frameworks
• Couple tissue-level cardiac mechanics to systemic hemodynamic and neurohumoral inputs within the VITAL consortium
• Contribute to patient-specific and cohort-level virtual human twin simulations
• Contribute to patient-specific calibration, uncertainty-aware parameter estimation, and model reduction workflows
• Develop robust, reusable, and well-documented scientific software in collaboration with other researchers
• Publish high-quality journal articles and present your work at international conferences
• Contribute to the mentorship/support of PhD and MSc students and participate in the scientific life of the lab and consortium

This position is an opportunity to work at the interface of rigorous computational mechanics, mechanobiology, machine learning, and translational cardiovascular modeling. We are looking for a motivated researcher who wants to develop scientific ideas while contributing to a larger international team effort.

You are an ambitious, independent and collaborative researcher with a strong background in computational mechanics and a clear interest in cardiovascular growth and remodeling. We are looking for a mechanics-first profile: rigorous training in nonlinear mechanics, finite element modeling, and multi-scale biomechanics is most important, while experience applying these methods to cardiovascular problems is a plus.

Required qualifications

• A PhD in mechanical engineering, applied mathematics, computational science, biophysics, biomedical engineering, or a closely related field.
• Strong background in nonlinear continuum mechanics, tensor algebra, and finite element modeling.
• Experience with computational solid mechanics, computational soft tissue mechanics, or a closely related mechanics field.
• Well-developed coding expertise in Python, Julia, C++, Fortran, or a similar scientific computing language.
• Experience with Git and collaborative scientific software…