Research Associate - Fixed Term (Cambridge)

Vacancy Reference Number

ZE29437

Closing Date

2 May 2022

Salary

£33,309-£40,927

Address

University of Cambridge

Duration

The funds for this post are available for 12 months in the first instance.

About the job

Applications are invited for a post-doctoral Research Associate position in Clinical NeuroInformatics to work with Dr Rittman consultant neurologist at CUH, Dr Guy Williams, Assistant Director for research at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, and Prof Zoe Kourtzi at the Adaptive Brain Lab (https://www.abg.psychol.cam.ac.uk) to support the development of computational systems for brain and mental health and their integration into clinical settings.

The position will focus on clinical data management and image analysis techniques for early detection of neurodegenerative disorders. The research will involve processing and interpreting both research cohort and clinical data, employing machine learning models to synthesise biological (brain imaging, genetic) and cognitive data from large-scale cohorts to determine markers for early disease detection, and validating tools in real world memory clinic data.

The research activity is at the core of a new Wellcome Trust funded Innovator Award that brings together multidisciplinary experts in machine learning (Prof Carola Schönlieb, Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics), neuroscience (Prof Zoe Kourtzi, Adaptive Brain Lab), clinical practice (Dr Tim Rittman, Clinical Neuroscience) informatics (Dr Guy Williams, Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre) and healthcare innovation (Eastern AHSN) to deliver an AI-guided solution for early dementia detection and prognosis from low-cost, non-invasive data. Our work programme aims to develop a fully deployable decision support system to a) aid clinicians in early diagnosis and patient management decisions, b) direct tailored interventions to individual needs, c) inform patient selection for clinical trials. This work has already gathered significant media interest (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57934589) and has the potential for transformative applications into clinical practice.

The successful applicant will receive multi-disciplinary research training at the interface between machine learning, neuroscience, and clinical translation. They will work with teams at the Alan Turing Institute (https://www.turing.ac.uk), the UK's national Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science: a) the Research Data Scientists team to develop advanced expertise in computational statistics, inference, and machine learning, b) the Research Engineering team to build and maintain robust, reliable and ethical software and ensure transparency and sustainability. They will also work in close collaboration with: a) the EDoN Initiative (https://edon-initiative.org) spearheaded by Alzheimer's Research UK, b) the Data Science and Neuroscience teams at AstraZeneca.

Applicants should have a PhD, Masters and/or Degree, together with a strong academic track record, in a relevant area (e.g., Biostatistics, Public Health, Neuroscience, Medicine, Data Science). Programming skills are highly desirable and experience with machine learning, data science, biostatistics, or clinical neuroscience/neurology are highly beneficial. Above all, they will demonstrate enthusiasm to contribute new knowledge, openness to learn new approaches and willingness to contribute to a multidisciplinary team across sectors (academia, industry).

Informal enquiries should be directed to Dr Tim Rittman (tr332@medschl.cam.ac.uk), Dr Guy Williams (gbw1000@cam.ac.uk) or Prof Zoe Kourtzi (zk240@cam.ac.uk).