Research Fellow UCL

Vacancy Reference Number

B02-06901

Closing Date

2 Jun 2024

Salary

£42,099 - £44,347

Address

UK DRI at UCL, Queen Square On site

Duration

The role is available from available from 05 August 2024 and is funded by the UK DRI until 31 May 2025 in the first instance.

About the job

Dementia is the greatest health challenge of our century.

To date there is no way to prevent it or even slow its progression, and there is an urgent need to fill the knowledge gap in our basic understanding of the diseases that cause it.

The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the biggest UK initiative supporting research to fill the major knowledge gap in our basic understanding of the diseases that cause dementia.

Research from UK DRI at UCL covers the journey from the patient to the laboratory and back to the patient with improved diagnosis, biomarkers and candidate therapies put to the test. Led by Professor Karen Duff, UK DRI Centre Director, the team addresses the key unanswered mechanistic questions that link genetic and lifecourse factors to dysfunction in molecular pathways, in cells and in neural systems during the progression of the dementias. This work will be enhanced by clinical resource to link lab work to the clinic.

The Krupic Lab aims to understand how accumulation of Tau and amyloid-beta pathology affects hippocampal-entorhinal neural networks and cognitive functions in age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. We employ cutting-edge neural recording techniques such as in vivo Neuropixels and two-photon imaging in behaving mice. We also develop and employ state-of-the-art behavioural techniques such as smart-Kages for comprehensive assessment of an animal’s naturalistic behaviours and virtual environments combined with neural recordings; and develop analogous tasks for humans to identify the digital biomarkers to facilitate early AD diagnostics. Finally, we use computational approaches to model the underlying mechanisms of EC-HP function and disease progression.

About the role

We are looking for a highly motivated, experienced, and self-driven Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join the Krupic Lab and study how spatial memory and the ability to navigate to the goal are affected in the Tau- and amyloid-beta- Alzheimer’s disease mouse models and how these changes correlate with neural and synaptic functions of the medial entorhinal-hippocampal neurons. We are especially keen to develop a stronger analytical and theoretical background for understanding the changes in neural dynamics related to the progression of Tau and/or Amyloid pathology.

About you

You will hold a PhD in neuroscience or a related subject, with strong experience with complex neural and behavioural data analysis, including writing your analysis functions, and excellent programming skills in either MATLAB or Python, combined with knowledge of statistics and complex neural data analysis.

Experience of working on hippocampal and/or medial entorhinal datasets and in in vivo electrophysiological recordings, two-photon imaging, and mouse behaviour is desirable.

This role meets the eligibility requirements for a skilled worker certificate of sponsorship or a global talent visa under UK Visas and Immigration legislation. Therefore, UCL welcomes applications from international applicants who require a visa.

Contact information

To apply visit here.

Informal enquiries regarding the role can be addressed to Dr Julija Krupic (j.krupic@ucl.ac.uk).