Nicolai Franzmeier, PhD

I am a Junior Research Group Leader at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD) of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich with ~7 years of expertise in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuroimaging research. I received undergraduate training in psychology and medicine from 2009-2014 in Innsbruck, Austria, and subsequent PhD training from 2014-2017 at the graduate school for systemic neurosciences (LMU) in Munich. After my PhD, I continued to work in the Lab of Prof. Michael Ewers as a Post-Doctoral Researcher From 2017-2020, and recently transitioned to a junior group leader position in January 2021. I am specifically interested in the 1) spatiotemporal evolution of AD-related brain changes that underlie cognitive decline and 2) those factors that provide resilience against the effect of AD pathology on cognition. My overall goal is to develop clinically useful models for predicting disease progression and to identify therapeutically relevant targets for secondary prevention of AD dementia. My research combines multimodal neuroimaging, including structural & functional MRI as well as molecular PET imaging with clinical measures and genetics.