Senior Scientist – Stroke position at the NeuroRestore center (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Location

The Defitech Center for interventional Neurotherapies (NeuroRestore) is a research and innovation center joining EPFL’s lab of Prof. Gregoire Courtine and the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) lab of Prof. Jocelyne Bloch. We conceive, develop and apply medical therapies aimed to restore neurological functions. To this end, we integrate implantable neurotechnologies with innovative treatments developed through rigorous preclinical and clinical studies. By working with our network of vibrant high-tech start-ups and established medical technology companies, we are committed to validate our medical therapy concepts. Our overarching goal is to see our medical therapies used every day in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics worldwide.

Opportunity

Over the last decade, research labs under the NeuroRestore umbrella have achieved breakthroughs for the treatment of spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease. Our recent studies indicate that similar approaches may lead to novel therapies for stroke. Therefore, we decided to build a strong research core focused on gaining deeper understanding of stroke and resulting neurological deficits, and on developing therapies that leverage the gained understanding to replace or restore motor functions impacted by stroke. By integrating well-equipped and expertly staffed rodent, non-human primate and clinical research facilities, NeuroRestore provides an ideal substrate for rapidly developing, integrating and clinically validating cutting-edge concepts of medical therapies, with the capacity to push successfully proven concepts into the technology transition phase.

Position Summary

The Senor Scientist – Stroke will bring their expertise and experience to build and then lead the stroke research core of the NeuroRestore center. They will develop original research projects across the whole stroke therapy development spectrum, starting from mechanistic understanding of stroke and resulting neurological and motor deficits, over preclinical tests of therapy concepts designed to take advantage of uncovered mechanisms, to clinical validation of therapies designed to alleviate motor deficits secondary to stroke. They will form and lead teams of NeuroRestore postdoctoral scientists, doctoral students, engineers and clinicians to execute these projects. They will train other scientists in their expert techniques and supervise junior scientists working on their projects. They will disseminate the results of their projects through research publications and conference talks and support preparation of scientific conference presentations and publications of other NeuroRestore personnel that works on stroke-related projects. They will take part in writing grant application that will support stroke-related projects.

Responsibilities

- Identify unmet clinical needs of stroke survivors and monitor the development of the medical neurotech sector to find opportunities for novel, feasible and rapidly realizable stroke therapies

- Conceive, organize and plan out research projects

- Form and leads teams to execute conceived research projects

- Utilize their academic / clinical industry network to form collaborations that will help execute conceived research projects

- Assess the project needs, identify relevant personnel and resources, and take part in hiring technical and scientific personnel to build skilled project teams

- Train the NeuroRestore personnel in their area of expertise

- Run project progress meetings, report on project progress, plan and manage the dissemination of project results

- Take part in writing of funding applications to initiate new projects, strengthen / accelerate ongoing projects, or enhance ongoing collaborations

- Develop and maintain connections with science labs and clinical centers to facilitate rapid animal and clinical testing of concepts and prototypes of medical treatments

- Manage efforts to obtain regulatory approvals for animal studies and clinical trials to validate the concepts of medical therapies

- Represent the Neurorestore Center at symposiums and conferences through talks and presentations

Personal Traits

- Passionate about the development of neurotechnologies that aim to alleviate movement disabilities of stroke

- Thriving in a cutting edge, fast-paced, multidisciplinary environment

- Self-starter and independent worker with an ability to identify innovative approaches and solutions

- Attention to detail

- Independent thinker and passionate problem solver

Skills

- Ability to independently conceive original research projects

- Capacity to supervise several research projects in parallel

- Capability to successfully lead research teams, and maintain collaborations with external partners

- Strong verbal and written presentation skills in English

- Experience with leading animal research projects and/or projects under the framework of clinical trials and studies

- Track record of obtaining regulatory approvals for animal studies and/or clinical trials

- Strong experience with writing project proposals, project progress reports and research articles

- Experience in disseminating project progress through talks, presentation and publications

- Experience in physiological signal acquisition and signal analysis

- Capacity to identify skill gaps and hire personnel to fill them

- Experience with writing, filling and obtaining patents

- Advanced presentation skills (PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator)

- Willingness to travel in order to form / maintain collaborations

- Possessing a strong academic, clinical, regulatory and industry network and the ability to use it to organize collaborative projects

Experience

- Doctoral degree (PhD)

- 6 or more years of experience working in the fields of neuroscience / neuroengineering (including the PhD studies)

- 3 or more years of experience in stroke-related research

- Strong publication record in the stroke field

Contact

Applications including a CV and a cover letter describing your background and interest should be sent to tomislav.milekovic@epfl.ch. Informal inquiries are welcome.