Job ID: 104233
Post-doctoral position to decipher the roles and circuits of D1/D2 co-expressing striatal neurons in cognitive behaviour.
Position: Post-doctoral Position
Deadline: 9 April 2023
Employment Start Date: 15 February 2023
Contract Length: At least 3 years
City: Brussels
Country: Belgium
Institution: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Department: ULB Neurosciente Institute
Description:
Neurophy Lab of ULB has an opening position for an outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher in the area of in vivo basal ganglia physiology. The project builds on our work on the critical role of uncharactherized functions of the striatal projection neurons co-expressing Dopamine D1 and D2 receptors (D1/D2 SPNs) that we are able to target with our new transgenic models (Bonnavion et al., 2022 BioRxiv doi:10.1101/2022.04.05.487163). The candidate will be engaged in deciphering the circuits of these D1/D2 SPNs, the role of D1/D2 SPN afferents and efferent neuronal populations and their roles in cognitive behaviours. and optogenetics. The successful candidate will use state-of-the-art in vivo techniques in mice (in vivo calcium imaging (Varin et al. 2022, BioRxiv doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.20.496781 ), DA sensor imaging, optogenetics, in vivo electrophysiology,…) coupled with behavioural paradigms.
Profile :
– The postholder must have a PhD in life sciences or equivalent with a competitive publication record, an international profile and excellent English communication skills.
– Experience with behavioural paradigms, stereotactic surgery, in vivo signal analysis (MATLAB, Python) (at least three years of bench) are required; experiences with in vivo optogenetic and in vivo Ca2+ imaging are an asset.
– The candidate will conduct efficiently, at the level appropriate for a postdoctoral fellow, and ability to perform and analyze experiments independently original research on the mandatory role of D1/D2 SPNs. They will have day-to-day responsibility for running their own research project but the group leader will coordinate the long-term direction of the project.
The candidate is considered in international mobility, i.e. she/he has not resided, studied or worked in Belgium over the past 6 years before the start of the post-doc.
We offer :
The postdoctoral researcher will benefit from: all the scientific equipment already available and validated in the Neurophy Lab (3 in vivo electrophysiological setups; 3 in vivo Ca2+ imaging devices (nVista, nVoke, nVue, Inscopix); 20 skinner boxes; 2 Videotracking systems; 4 ex vivo electrophysiological setups; our own animal facility for behavioural paradigms and maintenance of multiple transgenic lines; all in vivo optogenetical tools and 4 stereotaxic set ups), an international Neuroscience Institute (ULB Neuroscience Institute (https://uni.ulb.ac.be/) with more than 25 groups and supported by several Core Facilities (Light Imaging, Proteomics, Genomics, Transgenesis, Cell sorting, Bioinformatics) supported by ULB and located in the Capital of Europe, Brussels.
Brussels in addition to being a beautiful multilingual international city with reasonable rents, a very good quality of life and prestigious university colleges, has 3 academic hospitals such as the Erasmus hospital next to the neurophy lab.
The postdoctoral researcher will receive a competitive salary from existing grants for 3 years, with the possibility of extension for two more years.
If you are interested in applying for this position, please contact me: Alban de Kerchove d’Exaerde (Research Director, WELBIO Investigator, President of Belgian Society of Neuroscience) via adekerch@ulb.ac.be and include the following documents:
* Motivation letter (no more than 2 pages).
* Curriculum vitae (as detailed as possible; please present your journal publications separately from conference publication).
* Names of at least three references, including contact details (one of which must be the Ph.D. advisor of the candidate).
* PDFs of possible publications.
See also our website for additional informations : https://neurophylab.ulb. be