Postdoc Researcher / PhD: Smartphone memory assessments in early Alzheimer’s

A postdoctoral post, also open to PhD candidates, in Dr David Berron’s Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience group in Magdeburg, developing smartphone-based cognitive tests that pick up memory decline in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease

Disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s work best when they start early, ideally before symptoms appear. The trouble is that there is no scalable way to screen for early risk, or to track subtle cognitive change between costly and infrequent clinic visits. Short memory tests completed at home on a smartphone, and repeated over weeks and months, can catch decline that a single annual assessment would miss.

The group builds and validates these tests and combines them with blood-based and imaging biomarkers for research and clinical use in early Alzheimer’s disease. This project focuses on detecting, monitoring and predicting memory decline using data from national and international research cohorts and a real-world cohort, and builds on the group’s earlier work showing that smartphone-based assessments can detect memory decline. The wider group studies the functional architecture of human memory and the medial temporal lobe, and how Alzheimer’s pathology disrupts these systems from the earliest disease stages.

About the role

• Preparing, cleaning and harmonising clinical, cognitive, imaging, blood-based biomarker and smartphone datasets across cohorts
• Developing and applying regression and linear mixed-effects models to detect, monitor and predict subtle cognitive impairment and future change
• Supporting ongoing data collection in local and national research cohorts, including monitoring participant adherence and communication
• Working with the group’s international partners and consortia
• Preparing manuscripts and presenting results at international conferences

About you

• A PhD in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, biostatistics or a related field
• A genuine interest in cognitive impairment in early-stage neurodegenerative disease, particularly through remote, smartphone-based cognitive assessment and translational research
• Experience with longitudinal modelling of cognitive data (for example linear mixed-effects or multilevel models) and intensive longitudinal designs
• Experience with ecological momentary assessment, experience sampling or remote and ambulatory cognitive testing
• Programming skills in R and/or Python, and experience of data visualisation
• Familiarity with fluid and imaging biomarkers (blood, CSF, MRI) is a plus but not a requirement
• A track record of peer-reviewed publications
• Good communication skills and the ability to work in a small, open, international team
• Fluent written and spoken English; German is welcome but not required

Candidates who meet most but not all of these points are encouraged to apply. Applications for the PhD student track are equally welcome, and requirements will be judged relative to career stage.

What comes with the post

A full-time, two-year contract in Magdeburg, with the possibility of extension. You would have access to richly phenotyped, biomarker-characterised cohorts with remote and unsupervised cognitive assessment data, and a network of national and international collaborators including EU and US initiatives and industry. The group offers close one-to-one supervision, regular lab meetings and a journal club. Pay and conditions follow the German federal public sector agreement (TVöD-Bund), including an annual special payment and the VBL supplementary pension, with 30 days’ annual leave plus Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve off, flexible working hours and training tailored to your development.

How to apply

Applications should include a CV, a short motivation letter and two references. Questions about the post go to Dr David Berron at david.berron@dzne.de. The closing date is 31 October 2026.

DZNE welcomes applications from people across all dimensions of diversity, and particularly from people with disabilities. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany’s largest scientific organisation.