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Postdoctoral Research Associate

Employer
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Location
London (GB)
Salary
£38,304 - £45,026, Including London Weighting Allowance
Closing date
23 Aug 2020

Job Details

Job Description

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral researcher position funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The successful applicant will pursue a research project with the goal of understanding how brain-wide neural circuits lead to flexible cognitive behaviours in mice. The techniques employed will include chronic in-vivo two photon calcium imaging of multiple cell classes, targeted optogenetic manipulations, viral vector based functional circuit mapping, and quantitative mouse behaviour.

The successful applicant will benefit from the collaborative culture of the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King's College London and will have the opportunity to develop collaborations with groups studying animal models of brain disorders.

Candidates must have a strong research track record. Experience with in-vivo two photon imaging, rodent behaviour and analysis of complex datasets will be highly valued. Candidates with programming skills are encouraged to apply.

This is a full time fixed-term position until 31 May 2023.

Key Responsibilities

  • Train mice to perform flexible, cognitive behaviours
  • Perform chronic two-photon imaging in behaving mice
  • Use viral injections to label distinct cell types based on projection target or molecular class
  • Perform optogenetic and chemo genetic manipulations of cells during behavior and during imaging
  • Perform post-hoc immunostaining and confocal imaging
  • Perform image processing and computational analysis of data from experiments in the lab
    The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential criteria

  • PhD in Neuroscience or related discipline (or close to completion)
  • Experience in addressing neural circuit-level questions
  • Strong publication record
  • Knowledge of and familiarity with imaging methods
  • Intermediate programming and statistics skills using Matlab/Python/R or similar.
  • Experience in trouble-shooting problems with laboratory equipment
  • Ability to learn new skills and techniques
  • Ability to communicate findings and to write scientific reports

Desirable criteria

  • Experience with rodent behaviour
  • Advanced quantitative analysis skills, particularly of imaging and behavioural datasets
  • Stereotactic injections of viral vectors (AAVs, CTB, CAV2, modified-rabies etc.)
  • Immunohistochemistry

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearance.

This advertisement does meet the requirements for a Certificate of Sponsorship under Home Office regulations and therefore the university will be able to offer sponsorship for this role.

Company

King's College London is one of the top 20 universities in the world and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 27,600 students (of whom nearly 10,500 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 6,800 staff.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King’s was ranked 6th nationally in the ‘power’ ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of more than £684 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

King’s £600 million campaign, World questions|KING’s answers, has delivered huge global impact in areas where King’s has particular expertise. Philanthropic support has funded new research to save young lives at Evelina London Children’s Hospital; established the King’s Dickson Poon School of Law as a worldwide leader in transnational law; built a new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital; allowed unique collaboration between leading neuroscientists to fast-track new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease, depression and schizophrenia at the new Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute; created the Cicely Saunders Institute: the first academic institution in the world dedicated to palliative care, and supported the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership in the Ebola crisis. Donations provide over 300 of the most promising students with scholarships and bursaries each year. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.

Company info
Mini-site
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Telephone
+(44)02078365454
Location
STRAND
LONDON
WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

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