Franziska Albrecht

Franziska Albrecht

Assistant Professor
Telephone: +46852488816
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels Allé 23, 14183 Huddinge
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 Fysioterapi Franzen, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • Career

     

    • since 2023 Assistant Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Division of Physiotherapy, Franzén group &
    • Affiliated to Theme Women’s Health and Allied Health Professionals, Medical unit Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Karolinska University Hospital
    • 2019-2023 Postdoc, Karolinska Institutet, Division of Physiotherapy, Franzén group &
    • Affiliated to Theme Women’s Health and Allied Health Professionals, Medical unit Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Karolinska University Hospital
    • 2016-2019 PhD Student, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Research Group Cognitive Neuropsychiatry &
    • International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity (IMPRS NeuroCom)
    • 2013-2016 Research Assistant, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, CRC 1052 Obesity Mechanisms



    Academic Education

     

    • 2013-2015  Master of Science, Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Leipzig
    • 2010-2013  Bachelor of Science, Biology, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg

     

  • Merits

    • Part of the Karolinska Institute’s South Distinguished Lecture series committee
    • Pedagogical Ambassador in Doctoral Education at Karolinska Institutet, 2024

Research

  • For my research, I have applied data-driven methods ranging from meta-analyses, voxel-based morphometry, and machine learning to graph theory to investigate disease-specific neural correlates of neurodegenerative diseases as well as predict such syndromes individually.

    During my Ph.D. work, I conducted quantitative and systematic meta-analyses on neuroimaging data to identify disease-specific patterns that can disentangle clinically hard distinguishable Parkinsonian syndromes. Further, I worked on multi-centric neuroimaging data from the German Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Research Consortium. I used supervised machine learning to discriminate clinical syndrome and unique symptoms in single patients.

    As a postdoc, I worked on neuroimaging and behavioral analyses of a large randomized controlled trial that compared a highly challenging balance and gait training with an intense speech and voice training in people with Parkinson’s disease. I applied multi-level analyses, voxel-based morphometry, effective functional connectivity analyses, and structural covariance networks to investigate behavioral and brain changes. Taking a step towards personalized medicine, I used the aforementioned multi-modal dataset of neuroimaging, clinical, motor, and cognitive variables to identify Parkinson’s disease subtypes using unsupervised machine learning.

Teaching

  • Besides my research work, I am very passionate about and active in education at Karolinska Institutet. Since 2021, together with a colleague, I have been organizing a monthly journal club for the Ph.D. students at the Division of Physiotherapy. Further, I have experience in giving lectures, IT hands-on practices, seminars, and exam grading in several doctoral courses. Since 2021, I have been part of a systematic review course where I have held lectures, done seminar supervision, and proofread/ graded assignments. I am further part of the bi-annually structural MRI course where I facilitate lectures and IT hands-on practices with doctoral students. Here, I have held lectures and prepared as well as led the hands-on practice workshops using MRI analysis software. Additionally, I hold a lecture within the doctoral education module ’Neurodegenerative Disorders I - From Molecule to Treatment’, about the rehabilitation of balance and gait in Parkinson’s disease, yearly since 2021. Further, I also give lectures in Swedish. In a free-standing course, I gave a lecture about neuroimaging and neurodegenerative diseases (‘Introducerande kurs i diagnostik, behandling och forskning kring människans sjukdomar’).


    I was awarded the ’Pedagogical Ambassador in Doctoral Education’ at Karolinska Institutet grant for 2024.

Selected publications

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