Research Associate (Medical), Paediatrics & Child Health -MC

Introduction

The Outreach and Research Programme of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health has ten community-based field sites across Pakistan (including four in Karachi) and focuses on research for the betterment of women and child health. The Department has a Nutritional Research Laboratory as well as an Infectious Disease Research Laboratory that caters to the needs of its research projects. It has well-acclaimed work to its credit both at the national and international level.

As an equal opportunity employer, AKU believes in promoting a diverse and inclusive culture and is committed to adopt appropriate standards for safeguarding and promoting a respectful relationship with and between the diverse workforce of its faculty, staff, trainees, volunteers, beneficiaries, wider communities, and other stakeholders with whom it works, including children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees/trainees and partners to share this commitment.

Job Role / Responsibilities:

 You will be responsible to:

• Perform detailed mapping and segmentation of brain structures using MRI imaging.
• Collaborate with AI developers to preprocess and label data for training machine learning models.
• Validate AI outputs against expert annotations and refine models for accuracy.
• Conduct literature reviews to stay updated on advancements in neuroimaging and AI integration
• Prepare and maintain comprehensive documentation of MRI processing workflows.
• Assist in preparing research findings for presentations, manuscripts, and reports.
• Review segmented brain images to confirm accuracy, consistency, and adherence to quality standards.

Requirements:

You should have:

• medical Degree (MBBS) or a related medical background is required.
• experience in neuroimaging or related fields, with proficiency in MRI data analysis.
• familiarity with software like FSL, SPM, FreeSurfer, ITKSnap, 3DSlicer, BrainSuite or similar neuroimaging tools.
• 1 – 2 years of related work experience
• Strong understanding of neuroanatomy and brain structure identification.
• experience with machine learning or AI tools for medical imaging is a plus.
• strong understanding of infant brain anatomy and its development in MRI images.
• understanding of annotate segmented images with regions of interest (ROIs), including cortical and sub-cortical areas.
• knowledge of data visualization and analysis software (e.g., Python, MATLAB, R).
• excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• strong communication skills for interdisciplinary collaboration.
• ability to work independently and as part of a team.