About this role
PhD Candidate Mechanical Circulatory Support Welcome to Maastricht University! What if you could help redefine how we support the failing heart-at the exact moment it matters most? This PhD position bridges a state-of-the-art Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) experimental lab with real-world clinical analysis in patients with cardiogenic shock and cardiothoracic surgery. You will work at the frontline where engineering, physiology, and critical care converge to shape the future of life-saving therapy. PhD Candidate Mechanical Circulatory Support - Our goal: To improve outcomes for patients with cardiogenic shock and complex cardiothoracic disease by integrating cutting-edge experimental research with high-impact clinical analysis. - Your colleagues: A multidisciplinary team of cardiothoracic surgeons, intensivists, cardiologists, biomedical engineers, and data scientists within a state-of-the-art MCS lab and high-volume tertiary referral center. Cardiogenic shock and advanced heart failure remain among the most urgent challenges in cardiovascular medicine. Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) technologies offer life-saving potential, yet optimal patient selection, timing, and device strategies require deeper mechanistic and clinical insight. Our program combines experimental cardiovascular research with robust clinical cohort analysis to refine and personalize circulatory support strategies. As a PhD candidate, you play a strategically important role in connecting experimental MCS research with clinical outcomes in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery and/or treated for cardiogenic shock. You design and conduct laboratory-based studies, while also setting up and analyzing prospective and retrospective clinical cohorts. By investigating hemodynamics, organ perfusion, and device-heart interactions, you contribute directly to improving bedside decision-making. You translate experimental findings into clinically relevant h...