- Home
- Jobs
- All our job opportunities
- PhD position - Thermal and pressure induced protein structuring in meat analogues
Current meat production is unsustainable, depleting our natural resources while fueling climate change and consequently meat analogues are becoming increasingly popular. Meat analogues are typically produced by high moisture extrusion where protein powders are subjected to thermal and pressure treatments leading to a fiber-like microstructure mimicking the texture and appearance of meat. The project aims at in-situ studies of the formation of protein domains and their alignment that determines the mechanical properties of meat analogues. We propose to use high-pressure flow cells suitable for small angle X-ray and neutron scattering experiments to study the plastification and alignment of protein aggregates under process conditions. The experiments will allow to highlight the role of different ingredients in the structuring process. The scattering measurements will be combined with off-line characterization of meat analogues to establish a robust description of protein melt flow, structuring and product properties. Understanding protein melt properties will further impact many other fields including biomaterial-based packaging and tissue material where plastification is a key factor to control moisture permeability and mechanical strength.
Further information may be obtained from Olga Matsarskaia (tel.: +33 4 57 42 82 56, email: matsarskaia@ill.fr) and from Peter Fischer (+41 44 6325349, email: peter.fischer@hest.ethz.ch).
More details about the application procedure on www.innovaxn.eu/for-students/documents/
The successful candidate will be enrolled as a PhD Student at ETH Zurich and based full-time at the ILL (Grenoble, France), other than a 6-month secondment at Planted Food AG. Additional visits totaling no more than 3 months may be made to ETH Zurich when needed. Furthermore, a varied pedagogical training programme will be offered to the successful candidate throughout the 3-year PhD project.
More details on the InnovaXN programme on www.innovaxn.eu
InnovaXN is a Horizon 2020 MSCA COFUND programme providing an opportunity for 40 industrial companies to work with 40 PhD students, performing advanced research and exploiting the unique characterisation techniques of the ESRF and ILL. Through collaborations with industry, innovation will be the central theme of the programme. This will provide a unique cross academic-industry science setting, secondment opportunities and society-relevant research, training the future key researchers able to tackle major research and societal challenges.