2 MSCA-DN PhD's in advanced MRI biomarkers in leukodystrophies (Paris, FR)

POLARIS doctoral network

POLARIS is a European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network focused on accelerating therapy development for leukodystrophies: rare genetic disorders affecting the brain's white matter. The network aims to strengthen the full translational pathway, from understanding disease mechanisms and developing disease models to preclinical therapy testing, clinical readiness and patient-informed treatment priorities.

To achieve this, POLARIS brings together expertise in leukodystrophy biology, advanced disease models, therapeutic innovation, biomarker development, clinical translation, patient engagement, and ethical, regulatory and health-economic aspects of therapy development. The network will train a cohort of doctoral candidates in an international and interdisciplinary environment, combining academic research, industry-based preclinical development, secondments, network-wide training and transferable-skills development.

PhD projects
As a PhD candidate, you will develop and validate innovative MRI-based outcome measures to monitor disease activity and progression in cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (C-ALD).

Two complementary PhD positions are available within the same multidisciplinary research programme at the Paris Brain Institute. Depending on your background, your work will focus on either the clinical and neuroradiological aspects of advanced MRI or the computational and image-analysis aspects of the research.

You will investigate the sensitivity, specificity, and clinical relevance of state-of-the-art quantitative MRI (qMRI) techniques for assessing disease activity and progression in C-ALD. Particular emphasis will be placed on techniques including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and MR perfusion, which have shown promise as imaging biomarkers but require further validation in experimental and clinical settings.

You will process and analyse multimodal MRI and clinical data from paediatric and adult patients, combining clinical and neuroradiological expertise with computational and image-analysis approaches. The overall aim is to identify and validate robust imaging biomarkers that can improve the detection of disease activity, monitoring of disease progression, and development of clinically meaningful outcome measures for future therapeutic trials.

You will work closely with the other PhD candidate and with international experts in adult and paediatric leukodystrophies, neurology, neuroradiology, MRI, computational imaging, and patient engagement.

The two positions are complementary. One position is particularly suited to candidates with a background in clinical neurology or neuroradiology, while the other is suited to candidates with experience in computational sciences, image processing, and coding.

You will be supervised by Prof. Fanny Mochel and Dr. Caroline Sevin and will join the Metabolism, Immunity and Neurodegeneration (MIND) team at the Paris Brain Institute.

Planned secondments at the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany), and one of two patient organisations—Alex TLC or the European Leukodystrophy Association (ELA)—will provide additional experience in next-generation MRI techniques, international research environments, and the psychosocial and patient-centred aspects of MRI screening in C-ALD.

The positions are based in Paris, France, with doctoral enrolment through the Sorbonne University doctoral school.

Leukodystrophies are inherited disorders affecting the brain's white matter and can cause a wide range of neurological symptoms and disability. They can present at different stages of life, from infancy to adulthood. Although genetic diagnosis has advanced considerably, genetic information alone does not always predict when disease will develop, how quickly it will progress, or how an individual patient will be affected.

Cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (C-ALD) is a common leukodystrophy and a progressive inflammatory demyelinating disorder. Regular clinical assessment and brain MRI are important for monitoring disease evolution.

Within this project, you will use C-ALD as a model to investigate whether advanced quantitative MRI techniques can provide sensitive and clinically meaningful measures of disease activity and progression. The project will contribute to the development of imaging biomarkers that could support clinical monitoring and future therapeutic trials.