Postdoctoral Associate - Heart Brain Research

Summary

The Department of Neurology seeks a highly motivated Postdoctoral Associate to join a multidisciplinary research program focused on developing and validating digital biomarkers for cognitive aging, Alzheimer's disease, and related neurodegenerative disorders. The research program integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, voice and speech analysis, retinal imaging (OCT/OCTA), clinical phenotyping, cognitive assessments, neuroimaging, and biological markers to advance early detection, prediction, and monitoring of cognitive decline.

This position is a mentored research training opportunity designed to prepare Postdoctoral Associate for independent careers in academic, clinical, or industry research. The Postdoctoral Associate will lead novel research projects addressing scientific questions related to digital biomarker discovery, multimodal AI, disease prediction, and translational implementation. The Postdoctoral Associate will receive structured mentorship in study design, machine learning, clinical and population research methods, responsible AI, scientific communication, grant writing, and career development. Exposure to clinical, translational, and population-based research. Additioanl training will be provided in artificial intelligence, digital biomarkers, and precision medicine.

The Postdoctoral Associate will be expected to develop an independent research portfolio, publish findings in peer-reviewed journals, present at national and international scientific meetings, contribute to grant applications, and collaborate with investigators across neurology, geriatrics, ophthalmology, biomedical informatics, epidemiology, engineering, and data science. The appointment is intended to provide advanced training that will support the transition to an independent research career. It will provide opportunities to mentor students and participate in interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Baylor College of Medicine typically follows similar to the NIH stipulated stipend guidelines for Postdoctoral Associates.

Job Duties

• Leads independent research projects focused on digital biomarkers for cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and related disorders.
• Develops research questions and test novel hypotheses using multimodal clinical, imaging, biomarker, and behavioral datasets.
• Designs and conducts analyses evaluating the utility, validity, and generalizability of AI-derived biomarkers.
• Contributes to the development of new research directions and future studies.
• Develops and evaluates machine learning, computer vision, and multimodal AI approaches using voice, speech, language, OCT, and OCTA data.
• Applies supervised, unsupervised, and foundation-model approaches to classification, prediction, phenotyping, and biomarker discovery.
• Integrates clinical, cognitive, biomarker, neuroimaging, demographic, and longitudinal datasets into multimodal analyses.
• Participates in structured mentoring and career development activities.
• Receives training in advanced statistical methods, responsible AI, reproducible science, research ethics, and translational research.
• Develops skills in grant writing, study design, scientific leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Creates an individualized professional development plan with mentoring committee guidance.
• Prepares manuscripts as lead or co-author for submission to peer-reviewed journals.
• Presents findings at local, national, and international scientific meetings.
• Contributes to progress reports, grant applications, and scientific presentations.
• Communicates research findings to scientific and clinical audiences.
• Collaborates with clinicians, imaging specialists, speech researchers, epidemiologists, statisticians, engineers, and data scientists.
• Develops reproducible computational workflows and maintain rigorous documentation practices.
• Supports collaborative projects while maintaining high standards for reproducibility, transparency, and scientific rigor.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• MD or Ph.D. in Basic Science, Health Science, or a related field.
• No experience required.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Neuroscience, Computer science, Biomedical informatics, Data science, Engineering, Computational linguistics, Biostatistics, or a related field.
• Graduate or Postgraduate Research experience in a lab working with AI, Machine Learning and/or Biomarkers.
• First-author peer-reviewed publications.
• Grant-writing experience and career development.