Job Description

We are looking for talented PhD candidates in Biology / Biomedical Sciences!

Our group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) works at the intersection of biofunctional materials, functional precision oncology, drug discovery, and miniaturized technologies. We develop droplet microarray platforms to profile drug responses from scarce patient biopsy material, enabling the next generation of personalized cancer therapies.

If you are passionate about cancer biology, cell-based assays, organoids, or translational research – we’d love to hear from you!

👉 More info: www.levkingroup.com

The Levkin Lab is a multidisciplinary research group at the intersection of chemistry, materials science, microfabrication, and biomedical engineering. We develop innovative technologies that bridge fundamental science with real-world biomedical applications.

Our research spans several core areas:

• Droplet Microarray (DMA) technology for ultra-miniaturized, high-throughput experiments with nanoliter droplets, enabling large-scale drug screening, combinatorial synthesis, and cell-based assays from scarce or costly materials.
• Functional and responsive surfaces and materials, including superhydrophobic and photo-patterned surfaces, thermo-responsive hydrogels, and 3D-printed organogels for smart actuation and surface engineering.
• Rationally designed ionizable lipids and nanoparticles for mRNA delivery and targeted therapeutics.
• Cancer biology and functional precision oncology, where we apply miniaturized technologies to patient-derived samples for drug sensitivity testing, biomarker discovery, and personalized treatment strategies.

Students in the lab gain hands-on experience in micro/nanofabrication, surface and biointerface engineering, chemical synthesis, high-throughput screening, and lab automation. Increasingly, our work integrates machine learning and AI-driven analysis to accelerate discovery.

The societal impact of our research includes advances in personalized medicine, precision oncology, next-generation vaccines, sustainable lab automation, and affordable diagnostics.

We welcome curious, motivated, and hands-on students from backgrounds in chemistry, biology, materials science, biomedical engineering, or related fields. Interest in cancer biology, surface science, microfluidics, or bioassay development is advantageous, while skills in programming, data analysis, or 3D printing are a plus but not required.