# PhD Student (f/m/d) in MSCA Doctoral Network RAPTORplus: Assessing and improving first online adaptive proton therapy workflows of a clinic-industry consortium

With cutting-edge research in the fields of ENERGY, HEALTH and MATTER, around 1,500 employees from more than 70 nations at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are committed to mastering the great challenges facing society today. At the Institute of Radiooncology – OncoRay scientists specialized in medicine, physics, biology and IT work together to crucially improve the treatment of cancer by administering radiation therapy that is biologically-personalized and technically-optimized.

The Department of Medical Radiation Physics advertises a full-time 3-year-funded position as doctoral candidate in the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) **RAPTORplus** “Right-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of canceR – personalisation through anatomical PLUS biological adaptation”. The work will be carried out in the High Precision Proton Therapy group at OncoRay - National Center of Radiation Research in Oncology under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Stützer.

[RAPTORplus](https://raptor-consortium.com/) employs 18 doctoral candidates at the premises of 16 European institutions from academia, clinic and industry. It brings together more than 30 partners having one aim in common: To facilitate most effective adaptation in particle therapy. All doctoral candidates will pursue their own individual research project, receive training in a multidisciplinary and intersectoral program, gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art particle therapy infrastructure and work directly on solutions designed to translate into clinical practice and commercial products.

The successful candidate for the advertised position will work on research project 2: **Assessing and improving first online adaptive proton therapy workflows of a clinic-industry consortium.**

## Your tasks:

- Strengthen the connection between the clinic-industry consortium ProtOnART and RAPTORplus by gaining insight into and supporting the clinical implementation of the first ProtOnART OAPT workflow.
- Assess and further develop the OAPT workflow efficiency in Dresden with a focus on time reduction at all key steps of the treatment pathway. This includes the establishment of automated treatment session documentations for the retrospective assessment of the workflow performance and the identification (plus solving) of critical obstacles during first clinical applications in Dresden also in comparison to experiences at the partner site in Leuven.
- Work towards an automated decision support system for online adaptation with regard to economic factors and clinical measures, such as tumour-site-specific normal tissue complication probability.
- Conduct research on novel, fast treatment plan optimisation strategies.
- Acquire knowledge and apply the gained expertise during planned secondments: (1) Get to know industry solutions supporting precise radiotherapy of lung lesions at Brainlab SE, (2) Learn about metrics for the effectiveness assessment of adaptive proton therapy of lung lesions at Holland PTC, and (3) Apply OAPT efficacy assessment metrics/tool to other cancer site at KU Leuven.

## Your profile:

- A Master's degree or an equivalent title in the field of Physics, Medical Physics, Medical Technology, Biomedical Engineering, Data Science or any related field
- Compliance with the MSCA mobility rule: You must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before your recruitment date.
- High motivation to perform research at the interface of academia clinic practice and industry
- Profound knowledge in the field of proton therapy and familiarity with clinical radiotherapy workflows
- Strong analytical thinking and excellent problem-solving skills
- Solid programming skills and interest to apply it for automation, data analysis and modelling
- Knowledge in machine learning and affinity to apply this in the radiotherapy field is an asset
- Independent, pro-active, structured and solution-oriented work attitude
- Strong communication and presentation skills
- Enjoyment to work as a real team player within a group of multidisciplinary professionals
- Proficiency in spoken and written English
- As the research project involves temporary secondments to three other project beneficiaries with a total duration of 7 months, you must be prepared to travel and demonstrate appropriate organizational skills
- Proof of vaccination/immunization status (against measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A/B, chickenpox, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and polio) must be presented before starting work to ensure the best possible health protection for our patients and employees (Within the scope of § 23a IfSG)

## We offer:

- A prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship including a comprehensive, network-wide training and performing research on an interdisciplinary and international project in excellent research environment and under close supervision by world-leading experts
- A full-time position for 3 years with full social security coverage and 30 days of paid annual holiday leave
- A competitive monthly employer gross salary according to [MSCA regulations](https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2023-2024/wp-2-msca-actions_horizon-2023-2024_en.pdf) (page 118ff)
- Covered funding for short term mobility (e.g. conference attendance)
- Secondment activities that foster the development of valuable transversal competences with positive implications for your long-term employability.
- Eligibility to become a member of the Marie Curie Alumni Association ([MSAA](https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/)), a global network that promotes networking and career development and contributes to policy-making in research and innovation.
- Taking part in qualification courses of the [Graduate Academy](https://tu-dresden.de/ga?set_language=en) of the TU Dresden
- Support for a good work-life balance with the possibility of temporal part-time employment, of mobile working and flexible working hours
- Numerous company health management offerings
- Employee discounts with well-known providers via the platform Corporate Benefits
- An employer subsidy for the "Deutschland-Ticket Jobticket"

At HZDR, we promote and value diversity among our employees. We welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds regardless of gender, ethnic and social origin, belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation. Severely disabled persons are given preference in the event of equal suitability.

For further information about the job advertisement please visit [https://www.hzdr.de/db/Cms?pNid=490&pOid=76316](https://www.hzdr.de/db/Cms?pNid=490&pOid=76316).

For information about RAPTORplus, its 18 individual research projects, the recruitment procedure and the requested application documents visit [https://raptor-consortium.com](https://raptor-consortium.com/). Please submit your complete application documents in English **until 8th of February **under [https://indico.psi.ch/e/raptorplus](https://indico.psi.ch/event/18261/).

## Contact details

Helmholtz-Zentrum
Dresden-Rossendorf
Bautzner Landstraße 400
01328 Dresden

Team Recruiting

E-Mail: jobs@hzdr.de