Are you curious to understand how fast brain regions communicate with each other and how the speed of communication is degraded by brain diseases and impact brain function? Do you wish to unravel how brain diseases affect the brain’s microstructure, in particular how brain diseases alter myelinated axons and their electrophysical functional properties? Are you eager to work in a dynamic multi-disciplinary research environment with a focus on structural brain imaging? If yes, you should send us your application.
The Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) at Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre (Denmark) is seeking a 3-year postdoc in brain circuit conduction velocity mapping. The postdoc position is supported by the European Research Council consolidator grant “CoM-BraiN” – Conduction velocity mapping in the brain network in health and disease - where the aim is to use an MRI scanner to non-invasively map the conduction velocity of neuronal transmissions in the brain network between brain regions.
Your tasks:
- To establish translational animal models (rodents) of neurodegenerative and demyelination diseases mimicking those in humans
- To use optogenetic techniques to ablate and stimulate specific neuronal populations in the brain network and investigate how the manipulation impacts brain function.
- To measure and analyze the functional readout of brain stimulations using electrophysiology.
- To image the microstructural neuronal changes in the animal models with a focus on MRI to obtain 3D insights into anatomy. Our group integrates MRI with classical EM and immunohistochemistry but also 3D imaging techniques such as x-ray synchrotron imaging, and light-sheet fluorescence microscopy.
- To be a fully integrated member of a cross-disciplinary research team and expand your knowledge and curiosity contributing to other scientific projects - still centered around your research topic of interest.
Your profile:
You should be a motivated international-minded team player and have:
- A PhD degree in Neuroscience or corresponding qualifications within circuit or degeneration neuroscience
- Worked with animals and have established/used animal models.
- Documented practical skills in animal handling, stereotaxic surgeries, and anesthesia.
- Worked with tissue preparation for IHC and microscopic imaging used in your scientific publications.
- Interest in combining different imaging and functional measurements, e.g. histology and MRI to increase the scientific impact of your project. Here you will use the expertise of your group members.
- Fluency in English writing and scientific communication
- Independent working and thinking but also integrating with and contributing to the research team.
- Furthermore, having worked with viral injections and/or single-cell or LFP electrophysiological recordings is an advantage.
About us:
The project will be carried out at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) which is a leading research centre for biomedical MRI in Europe (www.drcmr.dk). Our mission is to triangulate MR physics and basic physiology from preclinical to clinical research. Approximately 75 researchers from 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 Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, a large diagnostic imaging department that houses all biomedical imaging modalities at the Copenhagen University Hospital Amager and Hvidovre. The hospital has strong collaborative links with the Technical University of Denmark and is part of the newly established organisational framework, The Technical University Hospital of Greater Copenhagen (TUH).
The DRCMR has a state-of-the-art MR research infrastructure enabling translational research, which includes a pre-clinical 7T Bruker MR scanner, and six whole-body MR scanners (one 7T, four 3T, and one 1.5T scanners). The DRCMR has pre-clinical labs, a neuropsychology laboratory, an EEG laboratory, and two laboratories for non-invasive brain stimulation.
Our preclinical labs perform basic research in functional, microstructure, and plasticity imaging centred around the 7T Bruker BioSpec MRI system. The preclinical labs include a GMO2-classified virus lab fully equipped with stereotaxic surgery equipment, and electrophysiology facilities. Our cross-disciplinary research team is designing and validating new types of diffusion MRI and quantitative MRI imaging technologies for non-invasively disentangling the microstructure of brain networks and their function. Here, it is key to have a true interest in how the microanatomy and saltatory conduction velocity are related in the normal, and how it impacts brain function in the diseased brain. Our vision is translating our research to clinics to improve future non-invasive imaging technologies for better patient diagnosis.
Your position:
The candidate will be employed for a postdoc period of 36 months at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance where he/she will be part of the Microstructure and Plasticity Group (drcmr.dk/map) and the Preclinical Method group, both led by Professor Tim B. Dyrby.
