PhD student Parkinson Vibrating Socks bij Freezing of Gait

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an age-related brain disease. Currently, 182 out of 100.000 humans suffer from PD. The disease presents itself in motor symptoms, such as tremor in the hands or unstable postures. One of the most invalidating symptoms is freezing of gait (FOG) that occurs in approximately 60% of the people with PD over the course of their disease. FOG is defined as a situation in which the feet appear to be stuck to the floor and often lead to falls. As a consequence, people with PD limit their daily activities that affects their quality of life.

FOG is mostly treated with medication. However, the effect of medication reduces quickly. A promising non-pharmacological approach is "cueing", during which sensory cues are used to overcome the blockage of the gait, i.e., freezing. Mechanical vibrations are often used as cues to stimulate the brain with a continuation of gait as a result. To prevent the receptors receiving the vibrations to adapt to the stimuli, this project tests an innovative method of cueing to overcome FOG, where the vibrations are only applied when a machine learning algorithm detect FOG.

Are you an enthusiastic and ambitious researcher that is interested in the development and validation of tools to improve the quality of life of Parkinson patients and do you have a Master’s degree in Human Movement Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Medical Technology or a related discipline? Do you look forward to work in a multidisciplinary and international research team on gait research and analyses of qualitative and quantitative data? Apply for the PhD position at the Department of Human Movement Sciences within the “Parkinson Vibrating Socks” project.

Your tasks
- Perform qualitative and quantitative scientific research within the “Parkinson Vibrating Socks” project.
- Evaluate the effects of the vibrating socks on gait in healthy participants with advanced technology.
- Developing and executing a qualitative research protocol in healthy participants and subsequently apply this in people with PD.
- Contribute to the de data management of a large international research project and perform meta-analyses of data acquired in this collaboration.
- Write scientific papers resulting in a dissertation.

- has obtained a Master’s degree in the Human Movement Sciences, Medical Technology, Biomedical Engineering or a related discipline;
- has knowledge on qualitative and quantitative research method;
- is interested in research in the context of gait, motor control, neurological disorders and product development;
- is experienced in data analyses with data analysis software such as Matlab, Python or comparabl;
- has affinity with the dynamics between research and business;
- can work in a multidisciplinary environment, is open to other approaches, flexible and proactive;
- has organizational and communication skills;
- is fluent in Dutch (preferred) and English (required).

We offer a challenging position in an enthusiastic international collaboration of Dutch and German universities and companies. You will get a contract for the duration of the project (four jears). Your salary will be a minimum of € 2.789,- gross per month in the first year and a maximum of € 3.536,- gross per month (scale PRO) in the final (4th) year, based on a full-time appointment. In addition, the UMCG will offer you 8% holiday pay, and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The conditions of employment comply with the Collective Labour Agreement for Medical Centres (CAO-UMC).

Practical information:
- The interviews will take place on October 25th, 2023.
- The starting date is as soon as possible after the application procedure, ideally January 2024.

You will work at the department of Human Movement Sciences, within the sector Research and Education of the UMCG. The department of Human Movement Sciences is an education and research department within the UMCG as well as the faculty of Medicine of the University of Groningen. The main goal of the department is to develop knowledge about the mechanisms of human movement and performance and to apply this knowledge to optimize human movement and human performance in healthy and clinical populations over the lifespan (healthy ageing). Our main activities are education and scientific research, and strive towards excellence and innovation. By educating the next generation of movement- and sport scientists, we aim to have a positive effect on the society that we live in.

The department of Human Movement Sciences is responsible for the Bachelor program Human Movement Sciences and two Master programs: Human Movement Sciences and Sport Sciences. In total, approximately 800 BSc and MSc students, 35 PhD-students and 80 employees are involved in the department.