Robert Lubomierski, M.Sc.

I am a PhD student in the MMNI group and joined the lab in April 2025. I am interested in the neurobiological underpinning of PD and their involvement in motivation. I work with neuroimaging methods ranging from functional MRI to QSM data. I program behavioural tasks to test the relationship between motoric effort and motivation during the early phase of PD.

Professional links: LinkedIn, GitHub

Academic education:

PeriodInstitutionDegree / Topic  
04.2025 – PresentUniv. Hospital ColognePh.D. in Neuroimaging
2021 – 2024Humboldt- Univ. BerlinM.Sc. Psychology
2022Stockholm UniversitySemester abroad
2017 – 2021Univ. of CologneB.Sc. Psychology

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionRole / Focus
2024MPI MetabolismInternship – Neuroimaging of reward/effort
2021Univ. Hospital CologneInternship – Neuropsychology
2018Univ. CologneResearch assistant

Ask me about:

Imaging analysis with FSL or SPM. Programming with Python or Matlab.

Thilo van Eimeren, MD

My scientific curiosity is directed at structural and molecular determinants of brain function in health and disease. I am particularly invested in applying and combining molecular and functional imaging methods to understand mechanisms of pathology in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinsonian Disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. I am also highly engaged in the translation of research in my field from basic to clinical science and the deployment of more advanced clinical standards of neuroimaging. For example, I coordinate national and international groups for the harmonization of imaging standards and organize a symposium on translational molecular imaging in neurodegeneration (MINC symposium).

As a leader of this group, I am dedicated to empowering young scientists to find their vocation and to achieve their full professional potential. 

Professional links: LinkedIn

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionFocus / Role  
Since 2015University Clinic CologneProfessor of Multimodal Brain Imaging
Since 2015University Clinic CologneConsultant Neurologist
2012Board Certification Neurology (“Facharzt”)
2010-2015University of KielProfessor of Functional Brain Imaging
2007-2010University of TorontoPostdoctoral Researcher
2007-2010University Klinik HamburgPostdoctoral Researcher

MMNI-News

During the IPMM days 2025 (May 2025), Verena received an award for 2nd best oral presentation for her project on “Motor or Mind? Dopamine loss in putamen and caudate drives distinct motor and cognitive symptoms in PD progression".

Dr. Elena Doering and PD Dr. Gérard N. Bischof have been awarded the prestigious Alavi-Mandell Prize by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (April 2025). The prize recognizes their outstanding scientific contributions in the field of molecular imaging of neurodegenerative diseases.

Find the recognized papers here:
MRI or 18F-FDG PET for Brain Age Gap Estimation: Links to Cognition, Pathology, and Alzheimer Disease Progression
Improved Tau PET SUVR Quantification in 4-Repeat Tau Phenotypes with [18F]PI-2620

Robert Lubomierski has joined the MMNI as a PhD candidate (April 2025), where he will support the ongoing DoMoCo study on Parkinson's disease. Welcome, Robert!

Dr. Hoenig and Dr. Doering’s works were selected among the five best abstracts at the European Conference for Clinical Neuroscience, held in Madrid (March 2025).

As part of the funding from the Brandau-Laibach Foundation (January 2025), the project to estimate different “Brain Age Gaps” (BAGs) will be supported with EUR 26,500 for the years 2025/26.

We were happy to host the third MINC symposium under the guiding theme “Uncharted Territories of Imaging in
Neurodegeneration” on Dec 12-13, 2024.

Find the program here.

At this year's Eibsee Meeting (November 2024), Elena Doering received the 2nd place of the Best Paper Award from the Hans-und-Ilse-Breuer Stiftung for her study on Brain Age and Alzheimer's disease progression.

Find the article here.

Elena Doering successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Positron Emission Tomography for the Timely Diagnosis and Prognosis of Alzheimer’s Disease", with distinction (October 2024).

– Congratulations!

At the European Academy of Nuclear Medicine Conference, held in Hamburg (September 2024), Dr. Hoenig’s work was listed among the Top Abstracts of the Neuroimaging session.

To foster her work on artificial intelligence biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease, Verena Dzialas received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a research visit to the University of Iceland (September 2024).

Dr. Bischof successfully completed the habilitation procedure (May 2024) and is now "PD Dr. Gérard Bischof".

– Congratulations!

During the SFB retreat 1451 (April 2024), Adrian Asendorf received an award for his poster on “The Link between Network Attack Tolerance and Motor Reserve Parkinson's disease”

At SPIE Medical Imaging 2024, held in San Diego, Elena Doering was awarded the Robert F. Wagner All Conference Best Student Paper Award.

At the European Academy of Nuclear Medicine Conference, held in Vienna (September 2023), Dr. Hoenig and Elena Doering’s work were listed among the Top Abstracts of the Neuroimaging session.

At the annual congress of the Movement Disorders Society, held in Coppenhagen, Verena Dzialas poster was recognized as one of the "Highlights in Artificial Intelligence".

Adrian Asendorf receives poster award at the SFB Retreat 1451
During the SFB retreat 2022, Adrian Asendorf received an award for his poster on “Are disruptions in dynamic functional connectivity caused by striatal dopamine deficiency in Parkinson’s disease?”

For her talk “Gray Matter Volume Loss in Proposed Brain-First and Body-First Parkinson’s Disease Subtypes” Magdalena Banwinkler received an award at the Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Parkinson Gesellschaft 2022.

Read the full article here.

To foster her work on artificial intelligence biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease, Elena received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a research visit to the University of Iceland.

During the IPMM days 2022, Verena received an award for 2nd best poster for her project on “Motor reserve as a modifier of long-term prognosis in Parkinson’s disease” Elena was awarded best presentation for her presentation on “How does brain age relate to the risk of developing dementia?”

Together with the company Dreem, the Sleep Research Society awarded Dr. Hoenig funds to study “Sleep as potential prognostic biomarker for longitudinal tau and amyloid burden in Alzheimer’s disease”. Dreem supported her project with the kind donation of 15 sleep monitoring headbands.

For his paper “One-Stop Shop: 18F-Flortaucipir PET Differentiates Amyloid-Positive and -Negative Forms of Neurodegenerative Diseases”, our alumni PD Dr. Jochen Hammes received the Alavi–Mandell Award 2022.

Dr. Gérard Bischof was honored by his hometown as ” Werdohler Kopf” (head/mind of Werdohl). This award is given to those who have made a name for themselves in their field. Very right, Werdohl, we could not agree more.

At this years Science Slam of the Medical School, University of Cologne, there were 8 great presentations by young researchers in the medical field. Verena Dzialas took 1st place (easily, we say) with her fantastic presentation on “Motor Reserve”. Julia Pfeil came in 3rd with a very impressive talk on “Amyloid, the protein that makes us forget”.

Kathrin Giehl received a PhD for her work entitled: Antagonizing Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: Neural & Behavioural Effects of Home-based Working Memory Training.

– Congratulations!

The work of Dr. Merle Hönig on “Resistance to Tau and Amyloid Pathology Facilitates Super-Aging” was selected as the Image of the Year 2020 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

Our group receives this prestigious international award for the second time after 2016, when the work of Dr. Gérard Bischof has been awarded.

Dr. Merle Hönig received the Brain Imaging Council Young Investigator Award 2020 at this year’s international conference of the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) for her presentation “Resistance to Tau and Amyloid Pathology Facilitates Super-Aging”.

As part of her presentation, Dr. Hoenig presented the results of a series of PET images that show that older adults who maintained peak cognitive skills exhibited greater resistance to build-up of Alzheimer’s disease-typical proteinopathies, namely tau and amyloid pathology.

Merle Hoenig received a PhD
Her thesis:
„The Spatial Evolution of Tau Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease: Influence of Functional Connectivity and Education“
received the highest possible distinction!

At the 14th International Conference on Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease (ADPD) held in Lisbon, Portugal, March 26-31, 2019, Jochen Hammes is awarded a Junior Faculty Award for his work on PET in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.

At the 14th International Conference on Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Disease (ADPD) held in Lisbon, Portugal, March 26-31, 2019, Merle Hönig is awarded a Junior Faculty Award for her work on tau and cognitive reserve in Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Gérard Bischof received the Kurt Kaufmann award of the German Alzheimer Forschung Initiative e.V. for research on gender effects on tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, which includes a prize money of €10.000.

for more information, see here

The work of cand. med. Hendrik Theis on how dopaminergic turnover in the ventral striatum is linked to impulse control disorders in PD patients was honored by one of the five ECCN 2018 awards for abstract submission at the 7th European Conference on Clinical Neuroimaging (ECCN) to be held in Brussels, Belgium, March 26-27, 2018.

See program here.

Dr. Gérard N. Bischof’s work on where amyloid deposition predicts progression in Alzheimer’s disease was honored by one of the five ECCN 2018 awards for abstract submission at the 7th European Conference on Clinical Neuroimaging (ECCN) to be held in Brussels, Belgium, March 26-27, 2018.

See program here

During the 1st international conference on cognitive reserve in dementias (ResDem) held in Munich, Merle Hönig is awarded the Best Poster Price for her work on tau and cognitive reserve in Alzheimer’s disease.

Read the full program here.

Merle Hönig, PhD student in our lab, was honored for the best poster in the category “Prognosis & Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease” during this year’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference held between July 16-20, 2017 in London. She received the award endowed with US$ 250 for her poster entitled: “Tau Pathology Burden Associated with Level of Cognitive Reserve in Alzheimer’s Diesease.

Read the abstract here.

Dr. Jochen Hammes was honoured with a travel grant during the 21. International Congress of the Society for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders held between June 4-8, 2017 in Vancouver, Canada. He gratefully received US$ 1000 for his work on predicting impulsive behaviour under dopaminergic therapy in Parkinson patients using F-18-DOPA-PET.

Read the abstract here.

Dr. Gérard N. Bischof receives a travel grant to present his work on the relationship between CSF markers of p-tau and t-tau to in vivo tau deposition as measured by PET in typical and atypical Alzheimer’s disease at the annual meeting of the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) in Denver, USA.

Read the abstract here.

The MMNI group is excited to participate in the very first Cologne Neuroscience Day (CNS) as a platform for young neuroscientists in Cologne to present their work. Talks will be given by Dr. Gérard N. Bischof and Dr. Jochen Hammes.

Read the full program here.

Every year, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging chooses an image that exemplifies the most promising advances in the field in order to detect diseases, aid diagnosis or select appropriate treatment strategies for patients. For this year’s annual meeting held in San Diego, the reviewers had to vote from 2200 submitted abstracts. We are happy and proud to announce that this year’s Image of the Year award goes to our dear member Dr. Gérard Bischof for his work entitled: “Novel PET imaging demonstrates relationship between Tau bildup and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s patients.”

Read the full article here. You can download the image here.

The medical faculty awards Kathrin Giehl an IPaK travel grant in the context of the ipid4all-application (DAAD) of the Albertus Magnus Graduate Center in order to present her work on T1-assisted tau-PET image preprocessing at the 22nd annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) honours Dr. Gérard N. Bischof’s work on the contribution of tau to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease with a Merit Abstract Award during their 22nd annual meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Adrian Asendorf, M.Sc.

I joined the MMNI lab as a PhD candidate in January 2022. I am interested in resilience mechanisms in PD. For this purpose, I work a lot with resting state fMRI together with dopamine sensitive PET imaging. By using multimodal approaches I investigate the mechanistic link between dopaminergic degeneration and alterations in dynamics of large-scale functional networks. Furthermore, I am highly involved in the implementation of the currently ongoing DoMoCo study. Finally, I am committed to building and maintaining a reliable IT structure for the MMNI lab.

Professional links: LinkedIn, ResearchGate, GitHub

Academic education:

PeriodInstitutionDegree / Topic
01/2022 – PresentUniv. Hospital ColognePh.D. in Neuroimaging – Resilience in PD
2019 – 2021Univ. of CologneM.Sc. Neuroscience – Dynamic FC in PD
2015 – 2019Univ. of BonnB.Sc. Biology – Multimodal electrophysiology

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionRole / Focus
2021Univ. Hospital CologneInternship – Neuroimaging preprocessing
2020Life & Brain Center BonnInternship – Patch clamp in epilepsy model
2020Univ. of CologneLab rotation – Multi-array recordings
2019Univ. Hospital CologneLab rotation – DBS electrode stability
2018Univ. of BonnStudy Assistant – Electrophysiology & teaching

Ask me about: Coding in Python and R. Resting state fMRI techniques, such as dynamic functional connectivity, graph therory and basically any IT related issues.

Hendrik Theis, MD

I am a resident physician in the Department of Neurology and a clinician scientist in the MMNI group. I have been working in the MMNI group for almost ten years. My main research area is molecular imaging of atypical Parkinsonian syndromes with a special focus on Tau-PET in progressive supranuclear palsy. Additionally, I use Tau-PET imaging in IgLON5 and I am also interested in examining nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease with multimodal imaging. I am the study physician of our DoMoCo study. My clinical focus is movement disorders, botulinum toxin therapy, and neurological intensive care medicine.

Professional links: LinkedIn, ResearchGate

Academic education:

PeriodInstitutionDegree / Topic  
2016-2021University of CologneM.D.
2015-2019University of Cologne University of BernMedicine, clinical part
2013-2015University of CologneMedicine, preclinical part

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionRole / Focus
2023-todayUniversity of CologneCologne Clinician Scientist
2022-2022University of CologneGerok position
2020-todayUniversity Hospital of Cologne Department of NeurologyResident Physician

Ask me about: Atypical Parkinsonism, PET imaging, especially Tau-PET, IgLON5, nonmotor symptoms in PD, DoMoCo

Merle Hönig, Dr. nat. med

I’m a trained cognitive scientist and neuropsychologist, who has been working in the MMNI lab for almost 10 years now. My PhD was focused on the role of education and functional connectivity on tau spreading in Alzheimer’s disease. As a postdoc and now deputy group leader, I use behavioral, wearable technology and multimodal neuroimaging methods to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying resilience and resistance towards the two extremes of the aging process, namely super aging and pathological aging such as Alzheimer’s disease. Aside from my research interest, I’m mentoring medical students and PhD candidates and try to share my wisdom 😉

Professional links: ORCHID, LinkedIn

Academic education:

PeriodInstitutionDegree / Topic  
01/2016-12/2019University Clinic ColognePhD
09/2013-08/2015Maastricht UniversityM.Sc., Clinical and cognitive neuroscience
10/2010 – 08/2013University of OsnabrueckB.Sc., Cognitive science

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionFocus / Role  
Since 2024University Clinic CologneDeputy group leader
Since 2021University Clinic CologneCo-PI C03 project “Dopamine and Motor Control” in CRC1451
Since 2010Research Center Juelich, INM-2Postdoctoral researcher
2015-2019University Clinic ColognePhD candidate
2015Research Center Juelich, INM-1Research assistant
2014MedtronicResearch assistant
2012-2013Pacific Parkinson’s Research CenterResearch assistant

Ask me about:
Soft skills: Being a younger woman in science, how to stay on top of things (time management, patience, etc.)

Other skills: PET processing, statistics, administrative stuff

Kathrin Giehl, PhD

MedizinFoto Köln

I am a neuroscientist and scientific project manager in the MMNI group and at the Research Center Jülich interested in improving our understanding of pathogenic and therapeutic mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. I coordinate a variety of investigator-initiated studies and industry-sponsored trials, ultimately aiming to improve patient therapy and care. In this context, I support my team in organizational, regulatory, ethical and legal questions. Finally, I am passionate about increasing the recognition for data collection and sharing within the neuroimaging community.

 

Professional links: LinkedIn, ResearchGate

Academic education:

PeriodInstitutionDegree / Topic
2015–2020University Hospital ColognePhD – Health Sciences, focus on cognition in Parkinson’s disease
2012–2014Free University AmsterdamMSc – Cognitive Neuropsychology, focus on cognitive neurology
2010–2013Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am MainBSc – Biological Sciences, focus on animal physiology

Professional experience:

PeriodInstitutionRole / Focus
2019 – presentResearch Center JülichScientific project manager & neuroscientist
2015 – presentUniversity Hospital CologneScientific project manager & neuroscientist
2014 – 2015University of OxfordResearch associate

Ask me about: Experimental design, fMRI, project management, clinical trials and their challenges and chances

Jochen Hammes, MD

Dr. Jochen Hammes has completed his residency at the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne and now is an external member of the Multimodal Imaging Group. He is especially interested in developing algorithmic methods in multimodal imaging research.

Jochen Hammes‘ profile on Researchgate.

 

Selected publications:
Hammes, J, Bischof, GN, Bohn, KP, Onur, O, Schneider, A, Fliessbach, K et al.. One stop shop: Flortaucipir PET differentiates amyloid positive and negative forms of neurodegenerative diseases. J. Nucl. Med. 2020

Hammes, J, Theis, H, Giehl, K, Hoenig, MC, Greuel, A, Tittgemeyer, M et al.. Dopamine metabolism of the nucleus accumbens and fronto-striatal connectivity modulate impulse control. Brain. 2019;142

Hammes J, Täger P, Drzezga A; EBONI: A tool for automated quantification of bone metastasis load in PSMA PET/CT, J. Nucl. Med. 2017

Hammes J, Leuwer I, Bischof GN, Drzezga A, van Eimeren T; Multimodal correlation of dynamic [18F]-AV-1451 perfusion PET and neuronal hypometabolism in [18F]-FDG PET; Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2017.

Hammes J, Bischof GN, Drzezga A: Molecular imaging in early diagnosis, differential diagnosis and follow-up of patients with neurodegenerative diseases; Clin Transl Imaging, 2017; 5: 465.

 

Curriculum vitae

2020
Board certification as Nuclear Medicine specialist (“Facharzt für Nuklearmedizin”) and Habilitation

2015-2020
Resident physician and postdoctoral researcher at Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Cologne
Algorithmic methods in imaging research
Imaging in neurodegenerative diseases

2014-2015
Manager for product development and IT at BetterDoc GmbH, Cologne
Product development, Database design, Userinterface design,
head of development team

2013-2014
Resident physician in neurology
Clinic for Neurology and Palliative Medicine, Clinics of the City of Cologne

2009-2013
Doctoral studies at Physics Group, Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Cologne
Thesis: GATE based Monte Carlo simulation of planar scintigraphy to estimate the nodular dose in radioiodine therapy for autonomous thyroid adenoma

2007-2013
Medical school
University Hospital Cologne, St. Claraspital Basel (CH), Kantonsspital St. Gallen (CH)