Job Description

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) occurs when degeneration of the discs, ligaments, and bones of the cervical spine cause spinal cord compression and neurological dysfunction. DCM is among the most common neurological disorders and causes substantial functional disability. Anatomical MRI is the primary imaging modality to assess for DCM, but spinal cord compression is common in healthy subjects and the degree of compression in patients with DCM correlates poorly with deficits. However, advanced MRI techniques have emerged that have the ability to directly measure elements of spinal cord microstructure and tissue injury, producing quantitative biomarkers that reflect axonal injury, demyelination, gliosis, and atrophy. These include diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), magnetization transfer (MT), and T2* weighted imaging. Biomarkers derived from these acquisitions can be combined in multivariate models that demonstrate strong correlation with clinical impairment, good diagnostic performance, and excellent responsiveness to detect neurological deterioration in DCM patients, with the latter representing an indication for surgical intervention. Building upon the momentum of numerous preliminary studies that the principal investigator has previously published, the current project is a late stage translational study to validate these methods in clinical use. This will involve analyzing clinical microstructural MRI scans using advanced tools such as the Spinal Cord Toolbox and providing patient-specific results that will be used by clinicians for decision-making. Additionally, comprehensive clinical data regarding spinal cord function will be collected for the purpose of validation, with opportunities to test numerous hypotheses regarding the MRI data. Furthermore, a related project will involve testing novel methods of spinal cord morphometric (shape) analysis in a large cohort of anatomical studies. The expectation is that the post-doctoral fellow will be responsible for MRI image analysis, under the guidance of Dr. Martin, and this will lead to several publications and conference presentations within one academic year. An ideal candidate for this position will have skills in MRI image analysis (spinal cord and/or brain), general programming skills (comfortable using Linux/Unix and shell scripts), statistical analysis (using R), writing skills for manuscript preparation, and presenting skills. Additional experience/training in clinical research and neurological assessments may also offer opportunities to participate in related investigations of spinal cord function and development of novel outcome measures for DCM.