Job ID: 96177

Postdoctoral Position in experimental neurophysiology

Position: Post-doctoral Position

Deadline: 31 October 2022

Employment Start Date: 1 December 2022

Contract Length: 13 months

City: Ribeirao Preto

Country: Brazil

Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirao Preto - USP

Department: Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences

Description:

Starting date: 01/12/2022

The Epilepsy Research Laboratory (Laboratório de Investigação em Epilepsia) is a multimodal research facility from the Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences at Ribeirao Preto. Aiming translational science, our group works with neuroimaging, neuropathological, and electrophysiology tools in patients and animal models to investigate the relationship between psychiatric comorbidities and epilepsies. Specifically, we are interested in how psychosocial factors can affect neuronal dynamics contributing to depressive-like symptoms that are common in temporal lobe epilepsy.

The scholarship is financed by FAPESP and is valid for 13 months.

More information on FAPESP PD fellowship is available at: http://www.fapesp.br/en/5427 (for fellowship values, check: http://www.fapesp.br/3162)

Job description:

The selected applicant will develop a study to investigate patterns of electrophysiological activity capable of predicting individuals or decoding behavioral states related to stress resilience and vulnerability in rats. The study will focus on the identification of multivariate patterns of activity of local field potentials related to large-scale brain network oscillatory dynamics underlying behaviors that are canonically evaluated in animal models of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, particularly those revealed during the open field, sucrose preference, social interaction, learned active avoidance, tail suspension, and forced swimming tests. The study also aims to characterize the properties of neural decoding of such behaviors using methods of machine learning. The ideal candidate will be a collaborative, hardworking post-doc who has excellent analytical skills and presents previous experience in electrophysiology recording during behavioral tests.

Key requirements:

  • Ph.D. in neuroscience or equivalent, with a thesis in electrophysiology
  • Proved skills in freely moving electrophysiology
  • Strong programming skills in at least Matlab, Python, or C/C++, or, and computational analysis of neural time series data is required.
  • A publication record demonstrating experience in animal models of stress or psychiatry-like symptoms.
  • A publication record demonstrating expertise in electrophysiological data analysis (time-frequency local field potential and spike-train analysis)
  • Knowledge of machine learning models for high-dimensional data-sets (supervised and unsupervised learning) is a strong plus;
  • English proficiency and excellent written and oral communication skills;
  • Experience with open-source tools and science awareness is a plus

What we offer:

  • State-of-the-art optogenetics/electrophysiology systems (Plexon), as well as open source systems (Open Ephys);
  • Possibility of translational studies with evaluation of human electroencephalography data from psychiatric patients;
  • One-year scholarship, funded by FAPESP.

How to apply:

Please apply to jpleite@fmrp.usp.br, with the following information:

  • A Lattes curriculum vitae (filled online at lattes.cnpq.br)
  • Two recommendation letters of reference from previous supervisors
  • Cover letter stating the motivation to apply and key skills that match the profile (one-page maximum)
  • Email subject: “PD FAPESP CANDIDATE – your name”

ABOUT THE EMPLOYER

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