The Research Centre for Neurological Diseases offers a post-doctoral
position at the Reina Sofia Foundation Alzheimer Centre in Madrid,
Spain. This position is funded by the European grant initiative
ERA-PerMed (Personalised Medicine). The project is coordinated by the
University of Eastern Finland, with partnering institutions (in addition
to our centre): Jena University Hospital, Germany, the Karolinska
Institutet, Sweden, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, and
Alzheimer Europe, Luxembourg.
The project title is “Personalised aging pattern for early risk
detection and prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia in
cognitively healthy individuals (Pattern-Cog)”. Pattern-Cog aims to
improve dementia prevention strategies by developing and validating a
machine learning-based personalised medicine framework for detecting the
earliest signs of impending cognitive decline, enabling early and
personalised multi-domain interventions. Findings from multi-domain
lifestyle trials have emphasized that intervention effectiveness may be
dependent on a methodology that does not yet exist, i.e., the accurate
identification of at-risk individuals who are most likely to benefit.
Pattern-Cog will address this methodological gap by (1) developing
methods for predicting future cognitive decline based on clinical,
neuropsychological, MRI and biomarker data and distinguishing between
healthy individuals at higher risk for mild cognitive impairment and
dementia and those who remain healthy; and (2) testing the methodology
in ongoing dementia prevention trials. Instead of a standard machine
learning approach, we propose an innovative concept of personalised
aging pattern rooted in data from healthy individuals.
Job description: The successful candidate will focus on objective 1, and
leverage data from an ongoing longitudinal study of a large cohort of
healthy 70-85 year olds, with particular emphasis on those individuals
who later develop mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. The
successful candidate will work in a multi-disciplinary environment with
full access to a 3T research-dedicated scanner.
Type of contract: Full-time. 2 years.
Salary: 40,187 euros bruto per year
Required for the position: PhD in neuroscience, biomedical engineering,
statistics, artificial intelligence, psychology, or related field. A
strong background in MRI neuroimaging analysis is required, as well as
expertise in statistical modelling. Fluency in English is required
Desired for the position: Experience in dementia or aging research is
desired, with a publication record in this field.
Application
If you are interested in applying, please contact Bryan Strange
([log in to unmask]) for further details.
Deadline for submission: 30/09/2022
Ideally, the successful applicant will be able to start the position by
17/10/2022
This position is funded by NextGenerationEU.
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