3 PhD positions on the “SEARCH ar University of Twente

Often cell populations are analysed by looking at average values of a population, such as size, shape and expression of proteins. However, a cell population is not homogeneous; it consists of different individual cells with different responses to stimuli.

Microfluidic technologies are a perfect tool to analyse the properties of individual cells. For example, the beating of individual spermatozoa can be measured by using electrical impedance measurements or optical analysis. More valuable information is present in the data, but this is currently not used.

The project will improve single cell analysis on a microfluidic scale, with robust image processing and machine learning techniques. The aim is to generate more knowledge about the

heterogeneity of cells in a population and their individual response on different stimuli, but also to make ground to choose the best cell of the population.