Dr. Max Olsson is a postdoctoral fellow at ‘Breathlessness and chronic respiratory failure’ at Lund University and visiting postdoc at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford. His research focuses on chronic breathlessness (dyspnoea) – the dominating symptom among people with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Chronic breathlessness decreases the quality of life and well-being among millions of people worldwide and is a risk factor for premature death. In Oxford, he is studying the brain mechanisms behind breathlessness using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with breathlessness measurements. These brain mechanisms can serve as potential treatment targets for future symptomatic treatment of breathlessness among people with severe respiratory diseases such as COPD. Topics related to breathlessness and the brain include studying structural brain differences related to breathlessness through structural MRI, brain connectivity using diffusion tensor imaging, and neural activity using resting state functional MRI. Analysis methods include computational neuroscience and machine learning.

Other topics that Max Olsson studies include: the epidemiology of respiratory symptoms, clinical evaluation pathways for chronic breathlessness, and studying the adverse health outcomes for individuals living with chronic breathlessness.

Students and researchers interested in collaboration should send an email to Dr. Max Olsson.