项目介绍

2026年5月14日

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to join the Neuroimaging Group at the Spinal Cord Injury Center, Balgrist University Hospital (Zurich, Switzerland). The position is fully funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant entitled: “High-Resolution Imaging of Spinal Cord Function After Injury: Advancing Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment Monitoring”.

The PhD project will be supervised by Dr. Gergely David and Prof. Dr. Patrick Freund. The Neuroimaging Group is a multidisciplinary team of neuroscientists, clinicians, physicists, engineers, and biologists, with access to state-of-the-art MRI infrastructure, including a 3T Siemens Prisma and 7T Siemens TerraX scanner.

Project
Spinal cord injury leads to profound changes in neuronal function, yet current clinical and imaging tools offer limited insight into functional integrity below the injury level. This PhD project aims to advance spinal cord functional MRI (fMRI) to non invasively map neuronal function with high spatial specificity. Building on recent methodological advances, the project will develop and apply clinically feasible 3T fMRI protocols combined with peripheral nerve stimulation and advanced data analysis. The ultimate goal is to better characterize changes in neuronal excitability and to improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring in patients with spinal cord injury.

Your responsibilities

• Implement and apply spinal cord fMRI protocols for the spinal cord
• Perform experiments combining electrical peripheral nerve stimulation with fMRI to probe motor and sensory neuronal circuits
• Conduct measurements in healthy participants and patients with spinal cord injury, in close collaboration with clinicians, study nurses, and radiographers
• Analyse multimodal MRI data, including functional, structural, and diffusion MRI
• Contribute to the development of advanced image processing and machine-learning methods

Your profile

• Master’s degree in neuroscience, engineering, natural sciences, computer science, or a related field
• Strong interest in neuroimaging, spinal cord research, and translational neuroscience
• Motivation to work with patients in a clinical research environment
• Fluency in English and German
• Experience with MRI imaging and/or image analysis is an advantage
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a multidisciplinary team

Information on your application

If interested, please submit your application containing a motivation letter, a curriculum vitae, and the contact details of two referees.