Faculty Member

Research Interests

My focus is on understanding the interplay between diet, lifestyle, obesity and brain health, utilizing advanced structural and functional MRI in longitudinal population-based cohorts and proof-of-concept randomized interventional studies. Applying multivariate statistics and explainable AI, we aim to explore how metabolic and microbial factors of the gut-microbiome-brain axis influence cognitive aging, decision-making and brain structure in humans. 

Available PhD projects

We offer a PhD project based on the applicant’s interests within the framework of an ongoing RCT focussing on the effect of a personalized dietary intervention on the gut microbiome and neuroinflammation in middle-aged women in the menopausal transmission period. Study outcome measures include blood brain barrier permeability and WM microstructure derived from multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging as well as cognition, behaviour, metabolic and microbial markers. We are a multidisciplinary team interested in open science and offer a collaborative international network co-funded by the EU and DFG within the LeiCeM Cluster of Excellence.