ABOUT THE PROJECT

Dementia is a global healthcare crisis, with an estimated 55 million people affected around the world. To monitor disease progression and possible treatment strategies, non-invasive brain visualization tools are needed, reflecting underlying neurobiological change. With the proposed combined post-mortem MRI and microscopy approach, we aim to create pathology-sensitive MRI markers for implementation in the clinic.

Over the past few years we have set up a unique collection of post-mortem neuroimaging data (7T ex-vivo and 3T in-situ) in combination with brain tissue, to answer the following objectives:

• How can we best connect microscopy, ex-vivo and in-situ MRI?
• To ascertain which neuroimaging modalities are most sensitive to specific neuropathological disease states, as defined by the distribution and burden of proteinopathy and other markers.
• To address heterogeneity with pathology-defined neuroimaging patterns.

The project will be a collaboration with researchers at Leiden University Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania (USA). By integrating different expertises and multisource data (clinical, radiological, histopathological), the project will result in new fundamental knowledge leading to improved interpretation of imaging datasets, relevant for the clinical setting.

PROFILE

We are looking for an enthusiastic, skilled and creative PhD candidate with experience in immunohistochemistry in neurodegenerative duseases, and would like to gain more expertise in neuroimaging. You have:

• A recent Master’s degree in Neuroscience, Biomedical Science, or a related field with a proven interest in neurodegenerative diseases;
• Lab experience with immunohistochemistry on human brain tissue;
• Some programming skills is an advantage;
• Affinity with neuroimaging or eager to learn more;
• You are highly motivated, creative and willing to work with human postmortem MRI scans and brain tissue;
• You are communicative, well organized, independent and enthusiastic.

As a PhD candidate your main duties and responsibilities are:

• Setting up and conducting the research;
• Collecting postmortem MRI scans;
• Performing immunohistochemical stainings at the lab;
• Performing MRI data analysis;
• Statistically analysing of MRI and neuropathology data;
• Writing scientific articles based on the results of your research;
• Making scripts publicly available through our GitHub site;
• Supervising students and some teaching duties.