PostDoc / Researcher position in Translational Neuroscience

Project title: Oligodendroglial isoforms of ANK3 and their role in the etiology of bipolar disorder

The project in detail:

• The ANK3 gene is robustly associated with bipolar disorder. We have established that elevated expression of a specific isoform of ANK3 starting in adolescence is the likely molecular mechanism underlying this association. In this project, we aim to further investigate this mechanism, primarily through the use of transgenic mouse models, but we do also have a large number of human samples that we may also use to investigate the mechanism (PubMed IDs of relevant publications: 26682468, 30297702, 35091539)
• The project is a collaboration between Professor Matt Rasband of the Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA). Professor Rasband’s team will be responsible for generation of new mouse models and the cellular characterisation of the cellular phenotypes whilst Dr Hughes’ team at Oslo University Hospital is responsible for the nucleic acid aspects of the study (mostly characterisation of transcript isoforms and expression levels as well as cell type specificity). The project is co-financed by the Norwegian Research Council and the National institute of Health, USA. Shorter research stays in Houston (USA) might be needed (approximately one trip per year)
• This is a project at the forefront of molecular neuropsychiatric research which will produce both fundamental knowledge in molecular neurobiology, but also medically-relevant translational knowledge

State-of-the-art technological environment for genomic and transcriptomic research:

• High throughput sequencing – the department hosts the Norwegian Sequencing Center (www.sequencing.uio.no)
• Digital droplet PCR
• Single cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics
• Collaborations with experts in flow cytometry

In addition, to the mouse models generated for this project, the selected candidate will join an environment which also works on human samples, including:

• A very large cohort of Norwegian mental disorder patients
• RNA from hundreds of human brain samples
• Stem cells from neuropsychiatric patients
• Human brain organoids / mini brains
• Our research group is associated with Norment (https://www.med.uio.no/norment/english/)
• The candidate is encouraged to also explore research ideas relevant to the wider area of neuro-psychiatric disorders and their etiology