Argonne National Laboratory has an immediate opening (starting July 1, 2008) for a postdoctoral bioengineer appointee. The appointee will conduct research and development on new methods for inducing protective cooling as part of team comprised of engineers/scientists and surgeons. The R&D will be conducted within the framework of a newly formed Argonne and University of Chicago "Bioengineering Institute for Advanced Surgery and Endoscopy". The team is developing innovative surgical procedures employing organ protective cooling using currently being developed advanced ice slurry coolants and the equipment for their production and administration. The team is also developing 3-D transient computer simulation models for predicting organ cooling based on improved understandings of tissue perfusion, metabolism and vasculature blood flow under off-normal conditions. The appointee will work both in Argonne's ice slurry research lab and at the University of Chicago in further developing ice slurry coolants and on developing with surgeons the new protocols for effective use of cooling for a wide spectrum of surgical applications.

Argonne's development of ice slurry for use as medical coolants is unique. The foundational micro-ice particle slurry research underlying the initial medical use of slurry was conducted by Argonne in the late 1980s and early 90s under DOE sponsored research and involved developing ice slurry cooling for industrial and distributed municipal cooling load applications. Recent research by others in developing procedures for inducing protective cooling, out side of those at Argonne and UC  with slurry, have focused only on cooling using single phase coolants such as chilled saline or by cooling with external cold blankets. Single phase coolants are not capable of inducing the rapid targeted cooling that is possible with slurry which has the additional benefit of absorbing more than four times the heat than chilled saline because of the ice particle melting, (change of phase). Thus a much smaller quantity of slurry is required to cool to the same temperature as a single phase coolant which relies only on sensible heat absorption. This characteristic of slurry greatly reduces the chances of upsetting bio-system chemistry resulting from coolant overload. Argonne and UC under a completed collaborative multi-year NIH Bioengineering Research Partnership grant conducted medical exploratory slurry tests on animal models for emergency medicine applications such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest protection. The recently formed "Bioengineering Institute for Advanced Surgery and Endoscopy" has initiated efforts to greatly broaden slurry cooling research for surgical applications. Some of the new research and development activities which the appointee will be involved with are as follows.

Develop test versions of ice slurry cooling equipment and protocols for use in inducing specific targeted-organ cell-protective hypothermia for protection against ischemia, reperfusion damage, and swelling for several surgery applications (laparoscopic as well as conventional open surgery). The equipment and protocols will be tested across various organs and surgical insults.  The cooling equipment R&D will also entail developing delivery/dosage controls to facilitate temperature control and feedback safety features to prevent over-pressurization and thermal damage of targeted tissues/organs. Additionally, we will initiate development of technologies for real-time visualization of tissue viability and function based on the incorporation of science-based simulations which together will provide a new tool for surgeons to help them in planning and conducting the new surgical procedures utilizing protective cooling. Appropriate animal models/experiments and physiologic measures will be developed and used as a means of establishing the efficacy of ice slurry cooling, use protocols, and for guiding the development of visualization/science based simulation tools.

The successful candidate (appointee) will have a Ph.D. in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, or an associated field(s) with strong emphasis on the interplay between thermal-fluid sciences, biology, and some experience with modeling of bio-systems (tissue, organs and blood flow); Candidate should have considerable knowledge and experience with bio-system experimental techniques and instrumentation (flow, temperature, and pressure...); including data acquisition/analysis, evaluation and interpretation of such experiments and some knowledge of applied mathematics and numerical analysis regarding modeling thermal transport and flow; and good skills in oral and written communication in English.  Interested candidates should send a detailed CV, along with a list of publications, and the names and addresses of three references through the Argonne web site at http://www.anl.gov/jobs under job search for postdoctoral/job openings, for requisition number 313313 NE. For additional technical information, send e-mail to kasza@anl.gov or call 630-252-5224.  Argonne is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by The University of Chicago. Argonne is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity in our workforce.