MARTE (Métodos de Análisis Rápido con Técnicas Espectroscópicas) is a multidisciplinary official research group (E43_20R) composed of staff from the University of Zaragoza belonging to the Institute of Engineering of Aragon (I3A), from the University Hospital Miguel Servet and from Technological Institute of Aragón.

MARTE research activity focuses on isotopic and elemental analysis at trace levels with special attention to the development of biomedical applications, aiming at minimally invasive methods of analysis. MARTE actively cooperates with Universities and industrial partners, among them 3 large private institutions are willing to host the postdoctoral researcher for secondments.

The post-doc will participate in the ongoing research projects (e.g., DBS) and developed new methods for the characterization of nanoparticles and microplastics, and the individual analysis of cells, in all the participating institutions.

MARTE is involved in multidisciplinary projects dealing with analytical chemistry methods with final application on the area of health. As an example, the group is now working in a European Project (POCTEFA, Interreg V-A, project EFA176/16/ DBS) with other partners, aiming at the monitoring and diagnostics of Wilson’s disease and patients with implants using dried blood spots and dried urine spots. http://dbs.unizar.es

VITO NV, Mol (Belgium)

LGC Limited, Teddington (UK)

Instrumentación y Componentes (Inycom) S.A. Zaragoza (Spain)

A secondment for 6 months is proposed at VITO NV. VITO is an independent Flemish research organization in the area of clean-tech and sustainable development with the mission to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world with interdisciplinary research and large-scale demonstrators. There the postdoctoral researcher will make used of applied analytical research to solve clients’ needs (companies and institutions) in a multidisciplinary context and will have access to state-of-the-art know-how and infrastructure of instrumentation (e.g., inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer) as well as get involved in European/international projects.

A shorter secondment for 3 months will be offered at LGC Limited under Heidi’s supervision. LGC is the UK’s National Measurement Laboratory and Designated Institute for chemical and biochemical analysis.  In this secondment the researcher will get trained in metrological aspects of single particle and single cell analysis including improved calibration strategies and measurement uncertainty calculation. She/he will have access to key intrastructure at LGC and get skilled in trace element speciation analysis, metallomics research, characterisation of nanomaterials, high accuracy isotope ratio analysis, quantitative elemental bioimaging and the characterisation of “speciated” reference materials and standards. The researcher will also get familiar with market assessment for the distribution of reference materials as well as all the aspects involved in reference material production.

Additionally, a secondment for 6 months is possible at the company Inycom S.A., a company with headquarters in Zaragoza (Spain) providing high quality solutions in the field of Information and Communication Technologies among others for over 35 years. There the postdoctoral researcher will work in a multidisciplinary environment, developing applications to analytical labs that make use of the instrumentation provided by Inycom, in cooperation with the different branches of the companies, which will enhance the researcher’s career opportunities.