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[EXPIRED] The Capital Region of Copenhagen is looking for a 2-year research assistant in precision brain imaging in Parkinsons's disease

Our team has made major progress in imaging the involvement of the substantia nigra and locus coeruleus in Parkinson´s disease over recent years.

Are you interested to become a part of our team and that continuously pushes the frontiers of precision MRI of the human brain and Parkinson’s disease at 3T and 7T?

Are you eager to work in a dynamic research environment in the Movement Disorders group and to leverage a unique clinical and  MRI infrastructure?

Do you thrive in multi-disciplinary environments where you closely interact with collaborators at the department, but also internationally?
If yes, we would like to see your application.

The Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) has an open research opportunity for a highly motivated research assistant to conduct cutting-edge research in clinical neuroscience and magnetic resonance imaging.

We are looking for a candidate who will help us acquire and analyze structural and functional MRI data in healthy participants and patients with Parkinson’s disease. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with an interdisciplinary team consisting of M.D.s, psychologists, physiologists, engineers, and basic- and clinical neuroscientists. You will join the Movement Disorders group led by Research Fellow David Meder as well as the ADAPT-PD project group led by Prof. Hartwig Siebner. Here, you will contribute to our efforts to map the changes in functional brain networks in Parkinson’s disease patients. Furthermore, you will aid our continuous work on ultra-high field (7 tesla) imaging of structural changes in midbrain nuclei in different stages of the disease. The employment may lay the foundation for an extension into a PhD position.

About us:

The Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) is one of the leading research centers for biomedical MRI in Europe (www.drcmr.dk). Our interdisciplinary research is geared to triangulate between MR physics, basic physiology, and clinical research. Approximately 70 researchers from a diverse range of disciplines are currently pursuing basic and clinically applied MR research with a focus on structural, functional, and metabolic MRI of the human brain and its disorders.

Collaboration is key at DRCMR – we do not expect any researcher to be able to do everything alone, but we expect everyone to be interested in sharing knowledge with colleagues.

The DRCMR is embedded in the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, a large diagnostic imaging department including all biomedical imaging modalities at Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre. The hospital also has strong collaborative links with the Technical University of Denmark and is part of the newly established organizational framework, The Technical University Hospital of Greater Copenhagen. DRCMR has close interaction with clinicians and radiologists and a state-of-the-art MR-research infrastructure, which includes a pre-clinical 7T MR scanner, six whole-body MR scanners (one 7T, four 3T and one 1.5T scanners), a hardware workshop and laboratory, a neuropsychology laboratory, an EEG laboratory, and two laboratories for non-invasive brain stimulation.  The 7T is a national research infrastructure, serving internal and external users across Denmark.                                                                                                                                                             

The position:

You will be employed as a research assistant for a two-year period at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance with good possibilities of extension.

Your daily tasks will vary according to the flow of the projects, but will mainly be centered around:

  • conducting functional MRI experiments with healthy participants and patients with Parkinson’s disease at 3T
  • conducting structural MRI experiments with healthy participants and patients with Parkinson’s disease at 7T
  • analyzing functional and structural MRI and behavioral data
  • engaging in teaching, knowledge dissemination, and publication of results in international, recognized scientific journals

The ideal candidate

  • You hold a MSc degree in medicine, neuroscience, biomedical engineering or a related field.
  • You have excellent written and interpersonal communication skills.
  • You enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary and international research team where flexibility, coordination skills and helping each other out are key comptencies.

A major advantage would be experience in any of the following:

  • experience with MR data acquisition and analysis
  • experience working with patients with Parkinson's disease or other movement disorders.
  • programming skills (preferably in Matlab or Python)

The project will be supervised by Research Fellow David Meder and Prof. Hartwig Siebner.

 

Selected Publications

Siebner, Thomas Hartwig, Stefan Fuglsang, Christopher Fugl Madelung, Annemette Løkkegaard, Flemming Bendtsen, Jens Dahlgaard Hove, Morten Damgaard, Jan Lysgård Madsen, and Hartwig Roman Siebner. “Gastric Emptying Is Not Delayed and Does Not Correlate With Attenuated Postprandial Blood Flow Increase in Medicated Patients With Early Parkinson’s Disease.” Frontiers in Neurology 13 (2022). https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2022.828069.

Madelung, Christopher F., David Meder, Søren A. Fuglsang, Marta M. Marques, Vincent O. Boer, Kristoffer H. Madsen, Esben T. Petersen, Anne-Mette Hejl, Annemette Løkkegaard, and Hartwig R. Siebner. “Locus Coeruleus Shows a Spatial Pattern of Structural Disintegration in Parkinson’s Disease.” Movement Disorders 37, no. 3 (2022): 479–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28945.

Siebner, Thomas Hartwig, Christopher Fugl Madelung, Flemming Bendtsen, Annemette Løkkegaard, Jens Dahlgaard Hove, and Hartwig Roman Siebner. “Postprandial Increase in Mesenteric Blood Flow Is Attenuated in Parkinson’s Disease: A Dynamic PC-MRI Study.” Journal of Parkinson’s Disease 11, no. 2 (January 1, 2021): 545–57. https://doi.org/10.3233/JPD-202341.

Herz, Damian M., David Meder, Julia A. Camilleri, Simon B. Eickhoff, and Hartwig R. Siebner. “Brain Motor Network Changes in Parkinson’s Disease: Evidence from Meta-Analytic Modeling.” Movement Disorders 36, no. 5 (2021): 1180–90. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28468.

Lohse, Allan, David Meder, Silas Nielsen, Anders Elkjær Lund, Damian M Herz, Annemette Løkkegaard, and Hartwig R Siebner. “Low-Frequency Transcranial Stimulation of Pre-Supplementary Motor Area Alleviates Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia in Parkinson’s Disease: A Randomized Cross-over Trial.” Brain Communications 2, no. 2 (July 1, 2020): fcaa147. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcaa147.

Haagensen, Brian N., Damian M. Herz, David Meder, Kristoffer H. Madsen, Annemette Løkkegaard, and Hartwig R. Siebner. “Linking Brain Activity during Sequential Gambling to Impulse Control in Parkinson’s Disease.” NeuroImage: Clinical 27 (January 1, 2020): 102330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102330.

Betts, Matthew J., Evgeniya Kirilina, Maria C. G. Otaduy, Dimo Ivanov, Julio Acosta-Cabronero, Martina F. Callaghan, Christian Lambert, et al. “Locus Coeruleus Imaging as a Biomarker for Noradrenergic Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Diseases.” Brain 142, no. 9 (September 1, 2019): 2558–71. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awz193.

Meder, David, Damian Marc Herz, James Benedict Rowe, Stéphane Lehéricy, and Hartwig Roman Siebner. “The Role of Dopamine in the Brain - Lessons Learned from Parkinson’s Disease.” NeuroImage, Mapping diseased brains, 190 (April 15, 2019): 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.021.

Irmen, Friederike, Andreas Horn, David Meder, Wolf-Julian Neumann, Philip Plettig, Gerd-Helge Schneider, Hartwig Roman Siebner, and Andrea A. Kühn. “Sensorimotor Subthalamic Stimulation Restores Risk-Reward Trade-off in Parkinson’s Disease.” Movement Disorders 34, no. 3 (2019): 366–76. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.27576.

Meder, David, and Hartwig Roman Siebner. “Spectral Signatures of Neurodegenerative Diseases: How to Decipher Them?” Brain 141, no. 8 (August 1, 2018): 2241–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awy195.

Lehericy, Stéphane, David E. Vaillancourt, Klaus Seppi, Oury Monchi, Irena Rektorova, Angelo Antonini, Martin J. McKeown, et al. “The Role of High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Parkinsonian Disorders: Pushing the Boundaries Forward.” Movement Disorders 32, no. 4 (April 1, 2017): 510–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.26968.

Correia, M. M., Rittman, T., Barnes, C. L., Coyle-Gilchrist, I. T., Ghosh, B., Hughes, L. E. & Rowe, J. B.
Towards accurate and unbiased imaging-based differentiation of Parkinson's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome.
Brain communications. 2, 1, p. 1-18, fcaa051. 2020.

Kaalund, S. S., Passamonti, L., Allinson, K. S. J., Murley, A. G., Robbins, T. W., Spillantini, M. G. & Rowe, J. B.
Locus coeruleus pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy, and its relation to disease severity.
Acta neuropathologica communications. 8, 1, p. 1-11, 11. 2020.

van der Vegt, J. P. M., Hulme, O. J., Madsen, K. H., Buhmann, C., Bloem, B. R., Münchau, A., Helmich, R. C. & Siebner, H. R.
Dopamine agonist treatment increases sensitivity to gamble outcomes in the hippocampus in de novo Parkinson's disease.
NeuroImage. Clinical. 28, p. 1-8, 102362. 2020.

Dogonowski, A. M., Andersen, K. W., Sellebjerg, F., Schreiber, K., Madsen, K. H. & Siebner, H. R.
Functional neuroimaging of recovery from motor conversion disorder: A case report.
NeuroImage. 190, p. 269-274, 2019.

Dubbioso, R., Manganelli, F., Siebner, H. R. & Di Lazzaro, V.
Fast Intracortical Sensory-Motor Integration: A Window Into the Pathophysiology of Parkinson's Disease.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 13, p. 1-14, 111. 2019.

van Eimeren, T., Antonini, A., Berg, D., Bohnen, N., Ceravolo, R., Drzezga, A., Höglinger, G. U., Higuchi, M., Lehericy, S., Lewis, S., Monchi, O., Nestor, P., Ondrus, M., Pavese, N., Peralta, M. C., Piccini, P., Pineda-Pardo, J. Á., Rektorová, I., Rodríguez-Oroz, M., Rominger, A., Seppi, K., Stoessl, A. J., Tessitore, A., Thobois, S., Kaasinen, V., Wenning, G., Siebner, H. R., Strafella, A. P. & Rowe, J. B.
Neuroimaging biomarkers for clinical trials in atypical parkinsonian disorders: Proposal for a Neuroimaging Biomarker Utility System.
Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. 11, p. 301-309, 2019.

Siebner, Hartwig R., David Meder, and Damian M. Herz. “FMRI in Parkinson’s Disease.” In FMRI: Basics and Clinical Applications, edited by Stephan Ulmer and Olav Jansen, 417–31. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41874-8_26

Thomsen, B. L. C., Herz, D. M., Siebner, H. R. & Løkkegaard, A.
Dyskinesier ved Parkinsons sygdom: opdatering om nye billeddannende metoder og behandlingsmuligheder.
Ugeskrift for Laeger. 12, 2017, p. 2-6, 2017.

Lehéricy, S., Vaillancourt, D. E., Seppi, K., Monchi, O., Rektorova, I., Antonini, A., McKeown, M. J., Masellis, M., Berg, D., Rowe, J. B., Lewis, S. J. G., Williams-Gray, C. H., Tessitore, A., Siebner, H. R. & International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society -Neuroimaging Study Group.
The role of high-field magnetic resonance imaging in parkinsonian disorders: Pushing the boundaries forward.
Movement disorders. 32, 4, p. 510-525, 2017.

Løkkegaard A, Herz DM, Haagensen BN, Lorentzen AK, Eickhoff SB, Siebner HR (2016) Altered sensorimotor activation patterns in idiopathic dystonia - an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of functional brain imaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp 37:547-557.

Herz DM,  Haagensen BN, Nielsen SH, Madsen KH, Løkkegaard A, Siebner HR (2016) Resting-state connectivity predicts levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 31:521-529.

Herz DM, Haagensen BN, Christensen MS, Madsen KH, Rowe JB, Løkkegaard A, Siebner HR (2015) Abnormal dopaminergic modulation of striato-cortical networks underlies levodopa-induced dyskinesias in humans. Brain 138:1658-1666.

Herz DM, Haagensen BN,Christensen MS, Madsen KH, Rowe J, Løkkegaard A, Siebner HR (2014) The acute brain response to levodopa heralds dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease. Ann Neurol 75:829-836.

Herz DM, Eickhoff SB, Løkkegaard A, Siebner HR (2014) Functional neuroimaging of motor control in Parkinson’s disease: A meta-analysis. Hum Brain Mapp 35:3227-3237. 

van der Vegt JPM, Hulme OJ, Zittel S, Madsen KH, Weiss MM, Buhmann C, Bloem BR, Münchau A, Siebner HR (2013) Attenuated neural response to gamble outcomes in drug-naive patients with Parkinson’s disease. Brain 136:1192-1203.

 

 

Group Members

David Meder

Group Leader

Hartwig R. Siebner

Yufei Song

Jiahua Xu

Show all group members (21)

External Collaborators

Assoc. Prof. Annemette Løkkegaard

Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg


Damian M. Herz, MD, PhD

Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
University of Oxford


Prof. Stéphane Lehericy, MD, PhD

Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière – ICM, 
Centre de NeuroImagerie de Recherche – CENIR, Sorbonne Universités, Paris


Prof. James Rowe

Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute
Dept. of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge


Prof. Angela Cenci Nilsson

Lund University


Prof. Andrea Kühn,

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Section


Mads Barløse,

Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre


Prof. Poul Jennum

Rigshospitalet, Neurocentre
Department of Clinical Medicine


Prof. Ray Dolan

University College London - Imaging Neuroscience
UCL-Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing


Rune Asger Vestergaard Frandsen, MD, PhD

Rigshospitalet, Neurocentre
Department of Clinical Medicine


Salvatore Bertino, MD

University of Messina, Italy