SNSF PhD position
Leenaards Memory Center | CHUV
Job description
UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution, with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus, CHUV and Epalinges. As employer, UNIL encourages excellence, innovation, interdisciplinarity, individual recognition and responsibility. The Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) is one of the five university hospitals in Switzerland. Through its close collaboration with the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at the University of Lausanne and EPFL, CHUV plays a leading role in medical care, research, and education. The Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DNC) is one of CHUV’s clinical and medical-technical departments. The DNC focuses on disorders affecting the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. It includes clinical and academic services in neurosurgery, neurology, neuropsychology, and neurorehabilitation, as well as the Leenaards Memory Center. The department also hosts specialized centers such as the Spinal Surgery Center and the Neuroscience Research Center.
The Leenaards Memory Center, led by Prof. Gilles Allali, is offering a PhD position, as part of a research project funded by the Swiss National Foundation, focused on emerging pathogenic pathways in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and co-pathologies.
Project description
The candidate will conduct their research within the project “Tackling emerging pathogenic players across main disorders leading to dementia: an MRI and pathology study” which has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Alzheimer’s disease and vascular pathology are among the most frequent pathologies leading to dementia, and often overlap. Pathogenic mechanisms underlying such disorders might reside at a peri- and juxtavascular level, where microglia and astrocyte activation, blood-brain barrier disruption and impairment of interstitial fluid drainage along perivascular spaces occur. This project will combine cutting-edge MRI techniques, fluid biomarkers, and histopathology to investigate into these mechanisms, offer new insights into pathophysiology of overlapping conditions leading to dementia, and potentially establish new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. The candidate will be involved in a multidisciplinary group, with collaborations with cutting-edge Laboratories in the field, at a national (HUG, UNIGE, UNIL) and international level (MGH).
Profile
The project includes a retrospective, a histopathology-imaging, and a prospective study. In the initial phase, the candidate will retrieve and analyze clinical data, imaging datasets, and fluid biomarkers from patients referred to memory centers. During the second phase, the candidate will be involved in MRI protocols development, patient recruitment, data acquisition, collection and storage, image processing, and statistical analysis. The project will be conducted in a clinical environment, offering the candidate the opportunity to work closely with patients, clinicians, and multidisciplinary research teams. The candidate will also be expected to supervise Master students involved in the project and contribute to their training and development. The candidate will be encouraged to participate in local and international workshops and conferences, and to present research findings as first author. The candidate will be supervised by Giulia Bommarito, MD, PhD, and Pr Gilles Allali, MD, PhD.
The ideal candidate should have:
Academic background: a Master’s degree in: Neuroscience/Biomedical Engineering/Psychology (with neuroimaging experience)/Data Science or Statistics (with interest in clinical neuroscience applications)/Life Science Engineering
Technical Skills:
- Experience with MRI data processing (ideally using tools such as: SPM, FSL, FreeSurfer), neuroimaging pipelines and preprocessing
- Programming skills for data analysis and visualization, in environments such as: Python, MATLAB, or R
Experience with statistical methods
Experience with scientific writing or accepted publications
Other:
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Interest in clinical neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases
- Motivation to work in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment
- Good organizational and communication skills
- Fluency in English (spoken and written)
- Dynamic and able to work both independently and as part of a team.