A postdoc in multimodal imaging of brain structural networks within developmental neuropsychiatry

Are you interested in unravelling how alterations in developing brain structure and connectivity contribute to developmental psychiatric disorders? Do you thrive working in inspiring multidisciplinary teams, which bridge between computational modelling, brain mapping, and clinical neuroscience? Then you are the person we are looking for!

The Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) at Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre (Denmark) is seeking a 3-year postdoc in multimodal imaging and brain structural networks within the field of developmental psychiatry. Together with our strong clinical collaborators at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, we are currently running the prospective Danish High Risk and Resilience Study (VIA) (www.drcmr.dk/via). The VIA study longitudinally follows the largest register-based cohort of children (n=522) in the world born to parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or none of these disorders. Studying children with familial high risk offers a unique opportunity to gain insight into the early disease processes and mechanisms. Children were assessed at the ages of 7, 11, and 15 years. Neuroimaging was included at age 11 and onwards. We are currently finalizing the first longitudinal neuroimaging follow-up at age 15 years and the follow-up at age 19 years starts this summer.

You will mainly be working on the longitudinal VIA data, with a focus on structural and diffusion-weighted image processing. The project includes brain network analysis, such as structural covariance and connectivity analyses, and normative modelling. You will be a member of the “Brain Maturation” (www.drcmr.dk/brain-maturation) and “VIA project” (www.drcmr.dk/via) groups at DRCMR and have ample possibilities to interact with researchers who are working on related multimodal neuroimaging studies. We have multiple ongoing projects in different pediatric populations aiming at studying typical and atypical development from birth to early adulthood in health and disease.

The postdoc position involves a tight collaboration with Prof. Andrew Zalesky (https://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/azalesky/) with the possibility to visit Prof. Zalesky’s lab at University of Melbourne, Australia. Prof. Zalesky and his group have developed the network-based statistic (NBS) tool that has been used in numerous published studies to map brain network dysfunction. The position also includes a collaboration with Prof. Merete Nordentoft (Region Hovedstaden - Psychiatry and University of Copenhagen) as the main PI of the VIA cohort study and the VIA neuroimaging group, including neuroimagers at DRCMR and the Center of Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Aarhus, Denmark.

Your profile:

You are a highly dedicated and dynamic postdoctoral researcher with the following qualifications:

• You hold a PhD degree in Neuroscience, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering or a related field.
• You have experience with structural and/or diffusion MR data analysis.
• You are interested in computational modeling of multimodal brain imaging data, previous experience would be advantageous.
• You have an interest and/or experience in mechanisms/pathophysiology related to child- and adolescent mental health and developmental neuropsychiatry.
• You enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary and international research team and integrating technological innovations into your neuroscience research.
• You have documented programming experience in e.g., Matlab or Python.
• As a person, you have a good team spirit, are innovative and constructive as well as possess research excitement.
• You possess good English communication skills.

The project will be carried out at the DRCMR, which is a leading research centre for biomedical MRI in Europe (www.drcmr.dk) focusing on the brain. Approx. 75 researchers from more that 20 countries and a diverse range of disciplines are currently pursuing basic and clinically applied MR research and its validation with a focus on structural, functional, and metabolic MRI of the human brain and its disorders. The DRCMR is embedded in the Center for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, a large diagnostic imaging department including all biomedical imaging modalities at the Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre.

The DRCMR has a state-of-the-art research infrastructure for preclinical and human medical imaging, which includes six whole-body MR scanners (one 7T, four 3T and one 1.5T scanners), a preclinical 7T scanner, a High-Performance Computer cluster and several state-of-the-art laboratories for electrophysiology and non-invasive brain stimulation.

The postdoc project will be supervised by Senior Researcher Kathrine Skak Madsen and co-supervised by Assoc. Prof. Kristoffer Hougaard Madsen, Prof. Andrew Zalesky, and Prof. Hartwig Siebner.

Starting date: is expected to be August 1st, 2024.

Salary and Terms of Employment
You will be employed as a postdoc for a period of 3 years. Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Danish Regions (Danske Regioner) and the relevant professional organization. The salary depends on background education and seniority. Further, supplements can be negotiated. Note that candidates coming from abroad may be eligible for tax reductions. The position is open for candidates of all nationalities.

We see diversity as strength and encourage all persons regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, disabilities or religion to apply.

Applications should include a cover letter, references, list of publications and CV.

Applications must be submitted on-line through the RegionH job portal.

Application deadline: May 15th, 2024 at 23:59 (CET)

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Job interviews are expected to be held shortly after the application deadline.

Department:
Kettegård Alle 30, Hvidovre

Kettegård Allé 30, Hvidovre

Lokation: Hvidovre Hospital

Application deadline: 15 May 2024