Research Fellow- Neurocircuit dynamics (Edinburgh)

Vacancy Reference Number

050853

Closing Date

10 Feb 2020

Salary

£33,797 - £40,322 per annum

Address

UK DRI at Endinburgh, The University of Edinburgh

Duration

Funded for one year in the first instance.

Job description

Dementia is the biggest health challenge of our century. 

The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the biggest UK initiative supporting research to fill this gap. 

The UK DRI at The University of Edinburgh will broaden out the traditional view of neurodegenerative disease as a disorder of misfolded proteins to encompass the multicellular environment surrounding degenerating neurons. 

The team examine the complex interactions between cells of the brain, immune system and blood vessels that make up the ‘neurogliovascular unit’. They bring together strengths in metabolism, inflammation, blood vessel biology and stem cell medicine to explore how interactions at the neurogliovascular unit control the trajectory of neurodegenerative diseases leading to dementia. 

Applications are invited for a research fellow position in Dr. Jian Gan’s lab starting in Spring 2020 or soon after.

The lab investigates real-time neurocircuit dynamics underlying network oscillations, cognition, and decision-making in vivo. With such knowledge, we seek to elaborate on what, where, when and how such dynamism goes wrong in disease conditions, e.g. dementia.

We approach these questions using a combination of state-of-the-art methodologies in neuroscience, for instance in vivo patch-clamp recording, large-scale silicon probe recording, well-controlled quantitative behaviours in virtual reality and optogenetics.

Person criteria

Successful candidates will have a Ph.D. in neuroscience/physiology/pharmacology/psychology or related quantitative disciplines (e.g. computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics) with a strong curiosity in neural circuits and animal models of neural diseases.

Applicants should have either good experimental skills or strong computational/quantitative ability.

Experience in electrophysiology or Ca2+ imaging in vivo, patch-clamp recording in vitro, stereotaxic surgery, behavioral training, and histology is highly desirable.

Some proficiency in relevant programming languages (e.g. MATLAB, C++, Python, R) with regard to analyzing electrophysiological/imaging data or signal processing of neural networks is advantageous.

Contact Details

Contact Person : Dr Jian Gan
Contact Email : Jian.Gan@ed.ac.uk