Marité Cárdenas

The postdoctoral researcher will join the Biocolloids and Neutron Scattering Laboratory to work on a project focused on shear-stress-responsive nanotechnology and microfluidic platforms for targeted cardiovascular therapy . The research is designed to understand how nanocarriers behave in stenosed blood vessels, where elevated shear stress can trigger changes in carrier structure and cargo release. The project combines microfluidic vessel-mimicking devices with small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering to probe structure and dynamics under flow. The successful candidate will design and operate microfluidic systems, prepare and characterise lipid-based and other soft-matter drug carriers, and carry out in situ and flow-based scattering experiments, including rheo-SAXS and microfluidic-SANS. They will also analyse scattering and flow data quantitatively and build models to interpret the results. The position sits within Instituto Biofisika , a joint research centre of the University of the Basque Country and the Spanish National Research Council, in an internationally recognised environment for biophysics, structural biology, and advanced imaging. The lab is led by Prof. Marité Cárdenas and is described as an internationally active group specialising in the physicochemical characterisation of biological colloids and membrane systems. The work includes collaboration with leading groups in the Basque Country and abroad, and access to major international research infrastructures such as ESRF and Institut Laue-Langevin . The project offers advanced training across scattering, rheology, lipid nanoparticle biophysics, FTIR spectroscopy, OMICS approaches, single particle profiling, cryo-electron microscopy, and structural interpretation, with opportunities to present work at international conferences. The successful candidate will also contribute to publications and proposals, and will co-supervise junior researchers within the group.