MR images of the brain reveal evidence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease already before clinical symptoms appear. For instance, some brain structures are slightly smaller in people who will develop dementia later on. Such image based markers are of enormous importance for early diagnosis and may lead to improved treatment in an early stage.
Erasmus MC performs a large scale image based study of the aging brain to investigate the complex neurodegenerative patterns involved in the development of dementia as well as in normal aging. Within this study, multi-sequence MR brain data of approximately 5500 participants is collected at intervals of three years.
In this PhD project you will develop model based segmentation techniques to automatically analyze brain structures in a large number of images, and you will use machine learning techniques to derive image markers, related to the shape, size, and appearance of brain structures, that can help in recognizing early onset and predicting future development of dementia.
For more information on our brain image analysis research line, please visit
http://www.bigr.nl/page/researchlines/researchline/3/
Requirements
You should have a Master’s degree in physics, electrical engineering, mathematics, biomedical engineering, computer science, or a related field. Experience with biomedical image analysis and/or machine learning is an advantage. You should be familiar with programming. You should be able to work in a multi-disciplinary team. Strong theoretical skills and affinity with experimental work are required.
Conditions
Our institute is internationally at the forefront of biomedical imaging, and offers a dynamic, challenging, and cooperative research environment. As a PhD student you will get a temporary position of four years (full-time). The gross monthly salary amounts to € 2046 in the first year and increases to € 2622 in the final year.
Information
Requests for information should be directed to Marleen de Bruijne at vacancies@bigr.nl
Application
Applications should include:
- a curriculum vitae;
- a motivation for your application and a description of research interests;
- a list of passed courses and grades;
- a list of publications
- copies of any publications, e.g. your M.Sc. thesis(in English)
The application should be sent by e-mail to Marleen de Bruijne at vacancies@bigr.nl before 9 October 2009. The preferred format is pdf.
Official announcement can be obtained at:
http://www.bigr.nl/website/structure/main.php?page=opportunities&subpage=opportunity&id=9
