PhD fellowship MRI and MRS of the Mouse Brain

A PhD position is available at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, to work on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) of the mouse brain. The project will apply 1H MRS, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) as well as Phase Imaging to rodent models of schizophrenia within a reverse translational study of redox dysregulation in psychiatric disorders, with particular emphasis on the role of oxidative stress in functional and structural dysconnectivity during neurodevelopment. The job will consist on the development and optimization of current techniques in MRI/MRS, data acquisition as well as data analysis.
 
The PhD student will have the opportunity to work in the Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET) with the state-of-art 9.4 T and 14.1 T small animal scanners, part of the CIBM (www.cibm.ch), and in collaboration with Prof Kim Do at the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (http://www.chuv.ch/psychiatrie/dpc_cnp_schizo.htm). The student will interact with researchers whose expertise is in domains as vast as MR physics, neurochemistry and neurosciences.

The position is open to highly qualified candidates holding a Master of Science in biomedical engineering, physics or neuroscience. Preference will be given to candidates already familiar with biomedical imaging. The PhD position is available from June 1st, 2011.
 
All application documents, including a cover letter, a CV (with full details of notes over the Master studies), and two reference letters, should be sent to Yohan van de Looij (yohan.vandelooij@epfl.ch) and/or João Duarte (joao.duarte@epfl.ch).