We are looking to appoint a Clinical Research Associate (3 days a week or 60% FTE) on a one year fixed term contract to undertake projects investigating brain imaging changes (multi-modal MRI and PET) in the PREVENT-Dementia and other related studies.
PREVENT-Dementia is an ongoing multi-site cohort study of people in midlife who are at increased risk of developing dementia (see: https://preventdementia.co.uk/), the PREVENT ¿ Rugby Football study and similar studies in dementia, especially Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The post is funded by research grants supporting these studies and you will be based within Professor O'Brien's research group in the Department of Psychiatry, a vibrant interdisciplinary group of basic and clinical scientists at the University of Cambridge undertaking clinical and biomarker studies seeking to understand the causes of dementia, to develop and validate biomarkers and to improve therapeutic and preventative interventions.
The group is part of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre Dementia and Neurodegeneration theme and there are close collaborations with other groups, especially in Psychiatry, Clinical Neurosciences, Psychology and Engineering as well as several external collaborations.
The PREVENT study involves the ongoing follow-up of 700 participants who underwent full clinical and cognitive assessments and 3T MR brain imaging at baseline (wave 1), wave 2 (2 year follow-up) and wave 3 (5-8 year follow-up). The appointee will be responsible for assisting with the analysis of multi-modal imaging data as part of the imaging analysis team and for clinical aspects of ongoing studies, including assisting with clinical trials, procedures (e.g venepuncture) and other clinical research duties. The appointee will also be involved in the analysis of the PREVENT-Rugby Football dataset (150 retired elite rugby and football players) as well as ongoing MR and PET (using both established and novel ligands for amyloid, tau, synaptic density and inflammation) studies in Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Findings from these innovative projects will accelerate our understanding of early structural and functional brain changes in those with and at risk of late onset dementia and provide key information on potential novel biomarkers for subject stratification and predicting outcome.
The post holder will be required to work as part of the dementia clinical research team and contribute to the design, preparation and conducting of imaging studies, undertake data analysis and preparation of manuscripts and reports, as well as assisting with the supervision of more junior researchers and students. The project would suit candidates with a clinical background in dementia and those who have completed or are about to complete a PhD in neuroimaging or a closely related area.
Desirable experience and skills include expertise with neuroimaging software packages (e.g., SPM12, Freesurfer, FSL), multimodal data integration, and familiarity with optimised pipelines for longitudinal data preprocessing and statistical analyses.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 28 February 2026 in the first instance.
Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment and a standard Disclosure and Barring Service check. This appointment also requires a Research Passport application.
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