PhD Candidates Neuroradiology: Brain Clearance Imaging

As a PhD candidate in the Radiology Department, you will conduct research on brain clearance mechanisms and their role in health and disease. Depending on your background and interests, you can apply to work either on the technical development of advanced MRI technologies or to focus on neuroscientific/clinical research involving patients. You will work alongside a multidisciplinary team of scientists, clinicians, and engineers to push the boundaries of brain imaging and contribute to insights that can improve healthcare practice.

Technical PhD Candidate
In this role, you will be responsible for developing and refining MRI technologies to visualize brain clearance mechanisms in health and disease. You will collaborate with academic and clinical partners to translate your findings into practical applications.

Your key responsibilities:
• Develop, validate, and apply new MRI sequences to visualize various aspects of the brain clearance system.
• Develop and perform advanced data reconstruction, post-processing, analysis, and interpretation to gain new insights into brain clearance.
• Collaborate with clinicians, engineers, and physicists to translate technical innovations into clinically applicable insights.

Neuroscientific/Clinical PhD Candidate
As a neuroscience/clinical PhD candidate, you will work directly with patients from the memory clinic, conducting MRI scans and neuropsychological assessments. You will focus on understanding the role of brain clearance in cognitive impairments and dementia through advanced data analysis and interpretation.

Your key responsibilities:
• Conduct MRI scans and neuropsychological assessments with memory clinic patients.
• Perform advanced post-processing to uncover patterns related to changes in brain clearance in patients with cognitive impairment and dementia.

• Perform analyses to study other advanced brain MRI markers related to cognitive impairment and dementia.
• Work closely with other clinical and technical colleagues to bridge imaging innovation with patient care.

In both roles, you will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge through publications and presentations and work within a multidisciplinary network of academic and clinical partners.

You have a Master's degree in a technical, clinical, neuroscientific, or biomedical (technology) field. You are enthusiastic and curious about new scientific breakthroughs and have an excellent team spirit. Additionally, you are open to international collaborations and learning from colleagues across borders.

Further requirements:

• Experience in brain research and MRI is a plus, but not required.
• Excellent programming skills for the technical position. Programming skills for the neuroscientific/clinical position are a plus.
• Excellent communication skills.
• For the neuroscience/clinical position: C2 or native Dutch speaker.

As a PhD candidate, your salary will be between €3,108 and €3,939 gross per month (scale Pro, CAO UMC). These figures are based on a full-time position.

Our offer

Driven by health; that's our mission. This applies not only to our patients but also to our employees. We strive to provide a safe, inclusive and equitable work environment, with a focus on talent development and connected leadership. In order to be able to continue to learn and develop, we offer internal and external training. You are also entitled to an end-of-year bonus (8,3%), holiday allowance, sports budget, bicycle scheme, home office allowance and an excellent commuting allowance. Furthermore, as an employee of LUMC, you are also affiliated with the ABP pension fund. This means that 70% of your pension premium is paid by LUMC, leaving you with a higher net salary. Nice, right?

At the Leiden University Medical Center, we continuously work on improving patient care. We invest in groundbreaking, international research and work with the latest equipment. Together with our team of doctors, medical specialists, teachers, academic researchers and supporting staff, we aim for the best quality in health care, education and international research. And we need you to realize our goals!

You will work at the Radiology Department (Gorter MRI Center and Neuro/head&neck radiology Research Group (NRG)) where we develop new MRI techniques in both hardware and software and apply them in medical research. Our center is home to people from diverse backgrounds: researchers with expertise in physics, medicine, psychology, and neuroscience. About half of our team members come from abroad, contributing to a multicultural and inclusive work environment.
Our group is characterized by an open atmosphere and good collaboration. We also actively help each other in implementing clinical and technical research.