Posted on : Friday 2 September 2016

Job title : 2016/09/02 Post-doctoral position : Diffusion-weighted MR spectroscopy methods to measure brain metabolites diffusion

Organization : MIRCen is a preclinical research center located in the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) center of Fontenay-aux-Roses (5 km from Paris). MIRCen hosts several platforms dedicated to the development of relevant animal models of neurodegenerative disease and to the evaluation of novel therapies. It gathers complementary expertises and methodologies, such as biochemistry, cell culture, gene transfer, optical microscopy and PET imaging. MIRCen hosts an in vivo magnetic resonance methodology group, and is equipped with a Varian/Agilent 7 T MRI scanner for rodents and primates, and a Bruker 11.7 T rodent MRI scanner.

Mission : The present offer is for a post-doctoral position in MIRCen’s magnetic resonance group. Position is funded by a grant from the European Research Council (INCELL project, PI: Julien Valette). It is available now and secured until November 2018. The post-doc will work in close collaboration with the PI on the development of diffusion-weighted MRS strategies to measure brain metabolite diffusion over several orders of magnitude of diffusion time, in order to explore brain intracellular compartments over vastly different spatial scales. In particular, the potential of long-lived spin states and 13C-labeled metabolites with long T1 will be investigated to reach diffusion times up to ~10 seconds. The post-doc will also work on the development of diffusion-weighted spectroscopic imaging.
Methods will be evaluated in the healthy rodent brain, including advanced data modeling as developed in the group to extract information about cellular morphology, and comparison with confocal microscopy data. Methods will then be applied in rodent models of neurodegeneration to assess cellular alterations.

Locality : MIRCen, (CEA) center of Fontenay-aux-Roses (5 km from Paris)

Remuneration : Salary will be commensurate with experience (past post-docs, etc...).

Degrees required : The candidate should hold a Ph.D. in chemistry/biophysics/physics or equivalent.

Skills required : He/she should be highly motivated, creative, and willing to collaborate with people having different backgrounds, in particular biologists. The candidate should be fluent in English or in French. The candidate should already have a solid background in MR physics, in vivo MRI/MRS, and expertise in pulse programming (preferentially Bruker). Knowledge of diffusion-weighted MR or long-lived spin states would be a strong asset.

Contact : CVs and application letters, as well as requests for additional information, should be sent to Julien Valette by email at the following address: julien.valette@cea.fr