Stimulus-responsive mesh for targeted anticancer delivery and catheter integration

This fully funded PhD position will reward the successful candidate with an award covering full fees, a maintenance stipend in line with UKRI rates, and a Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC) grant worth 10,000 GBP for personal development and consumables. This interdisciplinary PhD project aims to address the urgent need for safer, more effective and targeted cancer therapies through the development of a stimulus-responsive 'smart' textile mesh that can be integrated with surgical catheters to enable local, on-demand release of anticancer drugs in response to ultrasound stimulation. The functional textile mesh will be engineered to respond to ultrasound waves and trigger drug release on demand via sonoporation, which generates temporary pores in the mesh for local therapeutic agent delivery. The project will also investigate the conjugation of drug-encapsulated particles with targeted ligands to achieve enhanced selectivity and efficacy for anti-cancer therapy, minimize off-target toxicity, and improve patient outcomes. The innovative programme will be conducted under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Tronci (expertise in drug delivery, biomaterials chemistry, and polymer processing), co-supervised by Dr Xuebin Yang (expertise in tissue engineering and cell therapy), with Professor Stephen Russell as Director of LITAC. The successful applicant will join the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC), a collaborative international research institute focused on developing innovative science and technology for textiles and colour industries. This project is part of a cross-faculty collaboration between the Clothworkers' Centre for Textile Materials Innovation for Healthcare (CCTMIH) and the School of Dentistry, linking engineering, materials science, and biomedical research to contribute to a new generation of smart medical devices for precise cancer diagnosis and treatment.