Main Focus
Staying cognitively healthy is of paramount important when we age. With my work, I would like to contribute to a better understanding of mechanisms and modifiers of brain aging.
I mainly use multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging to generate biomarkers of brain aging and analyze their relationship with lifestyle and metabolic factors. Here, obesity and related metabolic disturbances like insulin resistance or systemic inflammation have become a main focus. In my previous work, I have investigated both large population-based cohorts studies such as LIFE-Adult and intervention studies in healthy aging adults.
Besides healthy aging, my heart beats for open science and I continuously strive to make my research more replicable and reliable.
My current projects are
- The effects of a multi-modal intervention on brain structure, function and cognition (AgeWell.de study in collaboration with Steffi Riedel-Heller, OSF project )
- Modifiable risk factors and small vessel disease (registered report, OSF project)
- Social Isolation, gray matter and cognitive function (OSF project)
- Brain changes in longCOVID (OSF project)
Curriculum Vitae
February 2020 until now: PostDoc with Dr. Veronica Witte in the OMEGA lab
October 2014 until February 2020: PhD with Dr. Veronica Witte. Title of the dissertation: "Body mass index relates to brain structure and function: A population-based neuroimaging approach"
October 2012 until October 2014: Master of Science in "Medical Radiation Sciences" at the TU Dresden
October 2010 until June 2011: Erasmus studies in Grenoble and Marseille, France