Hanganu Alexandru
Ph.D.
Contact information
Centre de recherche, IUGM
4545 chemin Queen-Mary
Montréal, Québec
Canada H3W 1W5
(514) 340-3540 #3375
alexandru.hanganu@umontreal.ca
Biography
My research concentrated on Parkinson’s disease since my doctoral studies. I showed significant neuroimaging changes in brain’s structure in this of group patients compared to patients with other pathologies and healthy people. In order to try to depict potential neuroimaging markers that might allow an earlier diagnosis, I pursued a postdoctoral research with Dr. Oury Monchi. Our studies managed to describe cross-sectional and longitudinal neuroimaging parameters in patients with Parkinson’s disease that have a high potential of depicting cognitive impairment in the early stages of the disease. Further collaboration with the supervision of Dre. Sylvie Belleville, we showed that our brain has a level of education-associated structural reserve that can maintain the level of normal cognitive performance for a longer period. These studies opened the path to my present research – describing the neuroimaging parameters that can be detected even earlier than our previous parameters. For this we are measuring the neuropsychiatric symptoms and using machine-learning-based predictive models in order to detect the most important features.
Research interests
Ageing is a stage in our life that all of us will experience. It is still challenging to maintain a healthy ageing and a highly productive cognitive performance.
I investigate the behavioral and neuropsychiatric patterns and their influence on the neuroimaging data in elderly and in patients with neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease). Defining these patterns allows the identification of clinical and neuroimaging markers with the highest potential of predicting future cognitive impairment by generating predictive models using python-based libraries.