PhD fellowship: Improve Aortic Valve Disease Assessment Using Experimental and Computational Models

A 3-year PhD-fellowship is available at the Intervention Centre at Oslo University Hospital. This is one out of two fellowships at The Intervention Centre that is part of the Cardiovascular Digital Twin network comprising a total of 15 fellowships across Europe. The project is funded by the European Research Council’s MSCA program.

Project and Job Description

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has transformed the treatment of aortic valve disease. This project aims to improve the assessment of aortic valve disease through the development of patient-specific experimental and computational models. The doctoral candidate will develop three-dimensional printed models of diseased aortic valves and play a central role in the further development and validation of a laboratory-based mock circulation platform.

A central objective of the project is to investigate the accuracy and limitations of current echocardiographic methods for estimating transvalvular pressure gradients and valve severity. To provide mechanistic insight into the experimental findings, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, including fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations where appropriate, will be developed and validated against experimental measurements.

The candidate will benefit from access to one of Europe's largest TAVI programmes, extensive clinical and experimental datasets, and international secondments with research groups in London and Ghent.

Important Eligibility Rule (MSCA Mobility Requirement)

This position is funded by the European Research Council's MSCA program. To foster international collaboration and knowledge exchange, the program enforces a strict mobility requirement:

• Who CANNOT apply: Applicants who have lived, worked, or studied in Norway for more than 12 months in total during the last 3 years.
• Who CAN apply: Applicants who have spent less than 12 months in Norway during the last 3 years (including those who have never been to Norway).