Postdoctoral position in the Team “Multimodal Neuroimaging and Lifestyle in Aging and
Alzheimer’s disease” (Dr. Gaël Chételat , UMR-S U1237-PhIND, Caen, France)
* Duration: 2 years (1 year renewable 1 year).
* Starting date: June 2018
* Research team: Multimodal Neuroimaging and Lifestyle in Aging and Alzheimer’s disease
headed by Dr. Gaël Chételat; www.gael-chetelat.fr; Research unit: INSERM-UNICAEN-EFS
UMR-S U1237-PhIND, GIP Cyceron, Boulevard Henri Becquerel, BP5229, 14 074 CAEN Cedex,
France
* Salary: according to experience
Job Description: The aim of the project is to investigate vascular and white matter lesions
across the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum using two large neuroimaging datasets (IMAP+
and Silver Santé Study). The postdoc will define the optimal methodologies and implement
the corresponding preprocessing pipelines to extract information related with WM lesions
from multimodal neuroimaging data. He will apply these methods to data acquired in controls
and patients. Then he will investigate the changes in normal aging and across the AD spectrum,
and the relationships between WM lesions and other neuroimaging alterations as well as
cognitive deficits in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive
impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The postdoctoral researcher will have access
to cross-sectional and longitudinal cognitive and neuroimaging data including, but not limited
to, FLAIR, T1, T2, ASL, resting-state and task-related fMRI, DTI, FDG-PET, and AV45-PET.
Requirements for applicants: PhD Degree in neuroscience, psychology, engineering, or
equivalent, and experience in neuroimaging are essential. The applicant should notably have
a solid background in neuroimaging analyses related to vascular and white matter lesions.
Programming skills are highly desirable though not necessary (Matlab, R, Python, C++, Perl).
Experiences in the treatment of other imaging modalities (fMRI, PET) and /or experience in
the field of normal and pathological aging will be appreciated, although not essential.
The lab: The Multimodal Neuroimaging and Lifestyle in Aging and Alzheimer’s disease team,
headed by Dr. Gaël Chételat, is organized around four main areas of interest: i) improving
neuroimaging biomarkers for early Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis; ii) further the
understanding of the physiopathological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease with multimodal
imaging, iii) investigating the relationships between lifestyle factors and brain biomarkers and
iv) developing non-pharmacological interventions to promote mental health and wellbeing in
aging population. The team is currently involved in 2 large projects: Multimodality Imaging of
Early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (IMAP+) and Silver Santé Study, a European study granted by
the European Commission (www.silversantestudy.eu; H2020, 2015-PHC-22) assessing the
effects of two 18-month interventions (English versus meditation training) on behavioral and
biological markers of aging and Alzheimer’s disease. The team is included in the INSERM UNICAEN-EFS
UMR-S U1237-PhIND directed by Pr. Denis Vivien and is based at the Centre
Cyceron (Caen, France), a structure devoted to multimodal imaging. The structure provides a
stimulating work environment as it groups several research units and several research
instruments, such as a cyclotron, PET-CT and MRI.
To apply: Send a CV, motivation letter and contact details of two academic referees to Gaël
Chételat via silversantestudy@cyceron.fr.
Deadline: 15 May 2018