Alzheimer's Disease: Modelization, Biomarkers, Preclinical Imaging, Therapeutic Evaluations
Resp. Marc Dhenain
URA CEA CNRS 2210, MIRCen, 18 Route du Panorama, 92265 Fontenay aux Roses, France

- PhD position: Development and evaluation of contrast agents to detect Alzheimer’s disease by MRI: Gadolinium staining and nanobodies targeting amyloid beta, tau proteins and neuroinflammation (To start in September 2015)

° Mission:

A doctoral position is available for a multidisciplinary project that aims at developing new MR contrast agents for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The person appointed will evaluate new magnetic resonance contrast agents in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, neuroinflammation as well as in primate models.


The project is multidisciplinary from in-vivo MRI to biology and will be associated to a multidisciplinary group that masters a wide range of techniques including the development of biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease by MRI or PET (CEA), the development of targeted MR agents and new treatments against neurodegenerative diseases (Pasteur Institute, CEA), as well as neuropathological analysis in humans (ICM) and animal models of neurodegenerative diseases (CEA, ICM).

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The funding is available for a 36 months period, starting from September 2015 (starting date can be modulated).

° Description of recruiting organization:

The work will be performed in the team of Dr. M. Dhenain (MIRCen, URA-CEA-CNRS 2210, Fontenay aux Roses, France). The group is part of the Molecular Imaging Research Center (MIRCen - http://www-dsv.cea.fr/MIRCen): an integrated structure dedicated to pre-clinical trials in gene, cell and drug therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. Based in the CEA centre at Fontenay-aux-Roses, operating in close association with the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot at Orsay (a clinical PET center specialized in brain imaging), MIRCen gathers research units with complementary expertises in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and prion’s diseases.

° Candidate profile:

The candidate should ideally have a background in Biology (for example animal models, imaging, histology, microscopy) or Physic (physic of MRI, MR sequence) and/or medical/pharmacy/veterinary science and/or neurosciences.

He/she should have skills in some of the following domains:

- MRI (protocol implementation, image analysis).

- Evaluation and manipulation of animal models of cerebral pathologies (intravenous and stereotaxic injections for example).

- Alzheimer's disease (histology, imaging)

The candidate will be formed in the domains that are not mastered at the beginning of the work.

The candidate will enter the selection of the CEA program ('International PhD program') which is highly competitive; Therefore, the quality of the CV is very important for this step and high grades/ranks are required throughout the higher education of the student (University, Engineer school ("Grande Ecole"), Medical studies, Pharmacy, or Veterinary studies).

° Send application (cover letter, CV, list of publications, 2-3 references) to

Dr Marc Dhenain

URA CEA CNRS 2210, Molecular Imaging Research Center

CEA, 18 Route du Panorama, 92265 Fontenay aux Roses, France

Tel: (33) 1-46-54-81-92

e-mail: Marc.Dhenain@cea.fr