Job ID: 86332

1 Ph.D. student position within DFG Research Unit

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 15 January 2023

Employment Start Date: 1 March 2022

Contract Length: 4 years maximum

City: Regensburg

Country: Germany

Institution: Regensburg University

Department: Neurophysiology group (Dept. of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology)

Description:

PhD position, salary according to 66% TVL-E13, for 4 years, starting March 2023 or later.

Your task:

  • work on innovative and demanding scientific project (see below)

Your qualifications:

  • a MSc degree in biology or physics or related subjects, with grade ≥ 2.5
  • analytical thinking, independent problem-solving, interdisciplinary interests
  • interest in method development/refinement; ideally, prior experience in electrophysiology
  • advanced teamworking and language skills (English both in speaking and writing)

 

We offer:

  • an interdisciplinary environment within a motivated and internationally renowned team
  • access to modern methods of cellular neurobiology (e.g., two-photon imaging/two-photon uncaging of transmitter)
  • further career development via structured graduate program RIGeL www.rigel-regensburg.de and integration into a national network, the DFG Research Unit FOR5424 (scientific meetings, workshops etc.) with international collaborations

The doctoral project  is funded by the new Research Unit 5424 ‘Modulation of olfaction: How recurrent circuits govern state-dependent behaviour’ of the DFG (German Research Foundation, speaker Prof. Dr. Veronica Egger; see also https://bernstein-network.de/en/newsroom/news/202207042/). In collaboration with the lab of  Andreas Schaefer, Francis-Crick Institute London, the project is focused on the following topic:

 

Modulation of processing within olfactory bulb glomerular columns via granule cells, including their centrifugal cortical glutamatergic inputs

(PIs Prof. Dr. Veronica Egger, Prof. Dr. Andreas Schaefer)

In this project we plan to combine ultrastructrural connectomics data from the Schaefer lab with multisite uncaging of glutamate to implement physiological columnar and top-down activation patterns of olfactory bulb granule cells.

Relevant literature:

Mueller M. & Egger V. (2020) Dendritic integration in olfactory bulb granule cells: Threshold for lateral inhibition and role of active conductances upon simultaneous activation. PLOS Biology. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000873

Further inquiries, application documents: Veronica.Egger@ur.de