A
drian Asendorf joined the MMNI lab as a PhD candidate in January 2022. Already while conducting his master’s thesis project in our group in 2021, he became highly interested in unraveling the mechanisms of dopaminergic modulation of cognition and locomotion in the context of Parkinson’s disease. For this purpose, he employs resting state fMRI and task-based fMRI together with dopamine sensitive PET imaging in a multimodal approach to investigate the mechanistic link between dopaminergic degeneration and alterations in dynamics of large-scale functional networks. Furthermore, he is highly involved in the implementation of the currently ongoing DoMoCo study in the context of the SFB1451 research grant, which is aimed to address the effects of progressive dopamine deficiency on networks engaged in vigorous volitional movements, dynamic network states and network topologies in Parkinson’s disease. Finally, Adrian is committed to building and maintaining a reliable IT structure for the MMNI lab.
Magdalena Banwinkler, Msc
Magdalena Banwinkler studied Psychology at the University of Vienna and obtained her Master’s degree in Biological Psychology in 2020. She joined the MMNI Group as a PhD candidate in March 2021 and is now performing her PhD training as part of the Collaborative Research Center “SFB 1451: Key mechanisms of motor control in health and disease”. The main objective of Magdalena Banwinkler’s research work is the investigation of structural and functional mechanisms that underlie Parkinson’s disease. To address her research aims she is using behavioral measurements as well as non-invasive neuroimaging methods, such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). With her work, she strives to gain a deeper understanding of the neural basis of motor control.
Julia Lothmann, MSc
Julia Lothmann completed her master’s thesis on the predictability of regional amyloid burden for the progression to preclinical and clinical Alzheimer’s disease in 2020 at the MMNI group. She has recently joined the group and will investigate molecular and functional mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease, such as tau and amyloid accumulation in the brain. Her research interests further extend into the domain of cognitive reserve as well as the effects of lifestyle factors in regard to the development of neuropathology in Alzheimer’s disease.
Verena Dzialas, MSc
Verena Dzialas is interested in reserve mechanisms in Parkinson’s disease patients. While the concept of reserve mechanisms is already well-established in Alzheimer’s disease, not much is known about factors mitigating the association between neurodegeneration and motor disability in Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, Verena Dzialas focuses on the investigation of neurobiological (e.g. gray matter volume (GMV) differences) and lifetime factors (e.g. physical activity) contributing to motor reserve capacity in Parkinson’s disease using multimodal imaging, voxel-vise GMV comparison and graph theoretical analysis. Moreover, she is interested in disease progression depending on the level of motor reserve, which is investigated with multilevel models.
Philipp Schlüter, BSc
Philipp Schlüter is a research fellow at the INM-2 at the Research Center Jülich and a researcher in the Multimodal Imaging Group.
He investigates the molecular mechanism in Alzheimer’s disease, such as production and transport of tau in the brain, using numerical models.
His research interest is in machine learning and AI methodologies.
Elena Doering, MSc
Elena Doering completed her master’s thesis on the effects of vibrotactile cueing on freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease in 2019. She has recently joined the MMNI group as a PhD candidate, where she will investigate molecular and neuronal mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, such as for example tau and amyloid accumulation in the brain. Her research interest further extends into the domain of machine learning and artificial intelligence methodologies.
See me on linkedin.
See me on Researchgate.
Publications:
Doering, E., Pukropski, A., Krumnack, U., Schaffland, A. Automatic Detection and Counting of Malaria Parasite-Infected Blood Cells. Proceedings of MICAD2020 (in print). Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering.
Michelle Meier, cand. med.
My research focuses on improving imaging-derived diagnosis of Parkinsonian Syndromes via artificial intelligence. Therefore, I explore tools of automatizing the image analysis process by implementing various methods in the field of machine learning and deep learning.
Contact:
Michelle Meier
MD student
Omer Reiner, cand. med.
Omer Reiner’s primary research focus is the role of dopaminergic pathways in reinforcement learning. He is investigating the effect of nourishment as a primary reinforcer and it’s significance in neural mechanisms underlying behavioral patterns that lead to obesity.
Contact: omerreiner@gmail.com
Hendrik Theis, M.D.
Hendrik Theis is a resident physician at the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital of Cologne and a researcher in the Multimodal Imaging Group. His research focus is the dopaminergic modulation of brain networks. He is investigating changes of fronto-striatal connectivity in Parkinson’s patients with impulse-control disorders and he is also interested in reward learning in obesity.
Publications:
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 (3):733-743.
Contact:
Hendrik Theis
M.D.
Merle Hönig, PhD
Merle Hönig’s research interest is focused on the investigation of resilience mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases. As part of her work, she elucidates the role of lifetime factors such as education, occupation, nutrition and physical activity in regard to the occurrence and extent of neuropathology and changes in network function in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In addition, she is interested in genetic and epigenetic changes and how these factors are, in turn, associated with resilience mechanisms.
Selected publications:
Hönig MC, Bischof GN, Hammes J, Faber J, Fliessbach K, van Eimeren T, et al. Tau pathology and cognitive reserve in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiol Aging. 2017 Sep;57:1–7.
Hönig MC, Bischof GN, Seemiller J, Hammes J, Kukolja J, Onur Ö, Jessen F, Fliessbach K, Neumaier B, Fink GR, van Eimeren T, Drzezga A. Networks of tau distribution in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain, 2018
Hönig MC, Bischof GN, Özgür OA, Kukolja J, Jessen F, Fliessbach K, Neumaier B, Fink GR, Kalbe E, Drzezga A, van Eimeren T: Level of education mitigates the impact of tau pathology on neuronal function. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging.2019 Aug;46(9):1787-1795
Curriculum Vitae (Hoenig_CV)
Kathrin Giehl, PhD
Kathrin Giehl’s primary research focus is to advance the understanding of underlying neural mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s disease. She is particularly interested in elucidating mechanism responsible for distinct cognitive impairments, which are frequently observed in this patient cohort, and to investigate the effects of cognitive training on a neural and behavioral level in order to ameliorate these difficulties. For her research, she utilizes behavioral paradigms and various neuroimaging methods, such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). In addition, she organizes and coordinates a broad range of investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored trials with a focus on neuroimaging and neurodegenerative disorders, especially Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Publications:
Giehl K, Ophey A, Hammes J, Rehberg S, Lichtenstein T, Reker P, Eggers C, Kalbe E & van Eimeren T. Working memory training increases neural efficiency in Parkinson’s disease: a randomized-controlled trial, Brain Communications, 2020.
Ophey A, Giehl K, Rehberg S, Eggers C, Reker P, van Eimeren T & Kalbe E. Effects of working memory training in patients with Parkinson’s disease without cognitive impairment: A randomized controlled trial. Parkinsonism & related disorders. 2020 Feb 11.
Giehl K, Ophey A, Reker P, Rehberg S, Hammes J, Barbe MT, Zokaei N, Eggers C, Husain M, Kalbe E, van Eimeren T. Effects of Home-Based Working Memory Training on Visuo-Spatial Working Memory in Parkinson’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Central Nervous System Disease. 2020 Jan; 12:1179573519899469.
Hammes J, Theis H, Giehl K, Hoenig MC, Greuel A, Tittgemeyer M, Timmermann L, Fink GR, Drzezga A, Eggers C, van Eimeren T. Dopamine metabolism of the nucleus accumbens and fronto-striatal connectivity modulate impulse control. Brain. 2019 Mar 1;142(3):733-43.
Giehl K, Tahmasian M, Eickhoff SB, van Eimeren T. Imaging executive functions in Parkinson’s disease: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Parkinsonism & related disorders. 2019 Feb 20.
Baumann A, Nebel A, Granert O, Giehl K, Wolff S, Schmidt W, Baasch C, Schmidt G, Witt K, Deuschl G, Hartwigsen G. Neural Correlates of Hypokinetic Dysarthria and Mechanisms of Effective Voice Treatment in Parkinson Disease. Neurorehabilitation and neural repair. 2018 Dec;32(12):1055-66.
Chong TT, Apps MA, Giehl K, Hall S, Clifton CH, Husain M. Computational modelling reveals distinct patterns of cognitive and physical motivation in elite athletes. Scientific reports. 2018 Aug 8;8(1):11888.
Tahmasian M, Eickhoff SB, Giehl K, Schwartz F, Herz DM, Drzezga A, van Eimeren T, Laird AR, Fox PT, Khazaie H, Zarei M. Resting-state functional reorganization in Parkinson’s disease: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Cortex. 2017 Jul 1;92:119-38.
Zokaei N, Giehl K, Sillence A, Neville MJ, Karpe F, Nobre AC, Husain M. Sex and APOE: A memory advantage in male APOE ε4 carriers in midlife. cortex. 2017 Mar 1;88:98-105.
Chong TT, Apps M, Giehl K, Sillence A, Grima LL, Husain M. Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying subjective valuation of effort costs. PLoS biology. 2017 Feb 24;15(2):e1002598.
Hammes J, Bischof GN, Giehl K, Faber J, Drzezga A, Klockgether T, van Eimeren T. Elevated in vivo [18F]‐AV‐1451 uptake in a patient with progressive supranuclear palsy. Movement Disorders. 2017 Jan;32(1):170-1.
Rolinski M, Zokaei N, Baig F, Giehl K, Quinnell T, Zaiwalla Z, Mackay CE, Husain M, Hu MT. Visual short-term memory deficits in REM sleep behaviour disorder mirror those in Parkinson’s disease. Brain. 2015 Nov 18;139(1):47-53.
Curriculum Vitae (download CV as pdf)
Contact:
Kathrin Giehl, PhD
E-mail: webmaster@mmni.de
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)