Development of new PET scans and blood tests for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative

Summary Austin Health is active in the development of new PET scans and blood tests for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Project Details

Austin Health is active in the development of new PET scans and blood tests for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The Neuroscience Molecular Imaging Research team is currently studying areas that include imaging of beta-amyloid, tau and neuroinflammation in aging, dementia and traumatic brain injury; dopaminergic neuronal imaging in Parkinson’s disease; and muscarinic receptor and vesicular monoamine transporter imaging in schizophrenia. The team is also evaluating performance of emerging novel plasma tau biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease. The group has active collaborations with the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT), the University of Melbourne, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, CSIRO, and many overseas research groups.

The successful applicant will be supervised by Professor Christopher Rowe, neurologist and nuclear medicine physician, Director of Molecular Imaging Research and Chief Investigator for the NHMRC Australian Dementia Network, who is a Web of Science “Highly Cited Researcher” in neuroscience 2020. The applicant will join a team of post doc researchers, research nurses, data analysts/IT experts, radiochemists and statisticians.

The position offers flexible hours and the option of doing the higher research degree either fulltime or part-time.

Role Specific:

• Undertake study and research towards a publication based PhD/DMedSci.
• Perform assessment of research participants when required.
• Perform data analysis using a variety of software under the guidance of the team.
• Prepare papers for publication under guidance from the team.
• Participate in Florey and Uni Melbourne PhD course work and seminars