Master thesis - Medical radiation physics

RaySearch develops innovative software solutions to improve cancer care. Over 800 clinics in more than 40 countries use RaySearch software to improve treatments and quality of life for patients. RaySearch was founded in 2000 and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. The headquarters is located in Stockholm, with subsidiaries in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia & New Zealand. Today we are more than 380 employees with a common vision of improving cancer care with innovative software. Our great staff is crucial for our success and we offer a fantastic working environment in modern offices, flexibility and good opportunities for development. We believe in equal opportunities, value diversity and work actively to prevent discrimination.

Are you in the end of your studies in engineering physics, physics, medical physics or similar? RaySearch now offers a Master Thesis position within medical radiation physics at our head office in central Stockholm, starting January 2023.

We offer the following Master Thesis job:

Radio-nuclear medicine in RayStation

Radionuclide medicine is when radioactive nuclei are injected in the body and bind to tumor cells where the radioactive decay can be used for treatment, tumor imaging or both. Radionuclide therapy has been used for over a century (Radium against Leukemia or Iodine against thyroid disease). The modern version are treatments where the radioactive nuclei (often Lutetium or Yttrium) are attached to manufactured peptides engineered to bind to molecules expressed at the surface of tumor cells. Nuclear beta-decays give a highly local energy deposit ranging only mm’s into the tumor or normal tissue, effective when there are many small lesions. Simultaneous photo-emissions reach outside the patient and can be used to create a, somewhat blurry, image of the tumor distribution in the body using a SPECT/CT imager (single photon emission CT). For some treatments a diagnostic PET/CT (positron emission tomography) is acquired before treatment using a beta+ emitter attached to the very same peptide.

There is mounting evidence that more precise knowledge of the dose distribution could inform treatment decisions leading to better patient survival.

We hope that at the end of this project we have created a RayStation prototype able to extract activity maps from SPECT or PET-images, feed these into the RayStation coupled photon-electron Monte Carlo dose engine with appropriate decay spectra and compute dose rates, time integrated dose or, time permitting, biologically equivalent dose for comparison to external radiotherapy.

Starting your career at RaySearch

Joining RaySearch as a Master Thesis Student, you will:

• … get a solid introduction to our company, products and ways of working.
• …become part of a global Swedish company with 350+ employees, head office and R&D department in central Stockholm with a chance of full-time employment after graduation
• … join 180 well-educated and dedicated engineers who enjoy knowledge sharing, problem solving and working in teams.
• … work in a great work environment with flex hours, breakfasts, after-works and social activities
• … work with cutting-edge technology for cancer treatment. Your daily work will contribute to improve cancer treatments for patients all over the world.

Who can apply?

Master thesis students with an interest in medical radiation physics and software development with project start January 2023.
You are interested in using your knowledge in physics and programming to contribute to our mission. You may be an experienced software developer or you may be less experienced but eager to learn. Physics skills, programming interest, summer/part time jobs within development and/or research are highly valued.