Durham University Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences.

Less than 3 hours north of London, and an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. The Durham Dales, including the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are home to breathtaking scenery and attractions. Durham offers an excellent choice of city, suburban and rural residential locations. The University provides a range of benefits including pension and childcare benefits and the University's Relocation Manager can assist with potential schooling requirements.

Durham University seeks to promote and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment for work and study that assists all members of our University community to reach their full potential. Diversity brings strength and we welcome applications from across the international, national and regional communities that we work with and serve.

The Department The Department of Biosciences is composed of 54 academic staff and research fellows; around 50 research and technical support staff; over 90 Research Postgraduate students and over 500 Single Honours undergraduate students, and also teaches students from the Natural Sciences programme. The Department is committed to an ethos of research-led teaching at both BSc and MBiol levels, and was ranked 5^th in the UK for Biological Sciences Departments in the Complete University Guide 2018

The Role Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in neurobiology with a particular emphasis on Drosophila neurogenetics. The research project will be undertaken under the supervision of Dr Vincent Croset (Principal Investigator) and funded by UKRI (BBSRC). Nutrition has a significant impact on neuronal function and behaviour. Resolving the interplay between diet and the brain is essential to prevent or alleviate conditions such as eating disorders, depression, or dementia. Nutritional states alter gene expression in the brain, and these alterations may reflect molecular pathways triggering behavioural changes or responses to cellular stress induced by the imbalance of key nutrients. This project will use the simple brain of Drosophila melanogaster to investigate molecular control of nutritional state-dependent behaviour. Taking advantage of recent advances in single-cell transcriptomics, the successful applicant will generate a systems-level depiction of the gene expression correlates of specific nutritional states and assess the behavioural relevance of candidate genes and pathways identified. They will further explore how state-driven transcriptional dynamics changes during the life course to affect cognitive ability in aged animals.

This post is fixed term for 1 year in the first instance, renewable for a maximum of 2 additional years as funding is available for a maximum of 3 years only. All applicants are asked to submit:

• A CV and covering letter which details your experience, strengths and potential in the requirements set out above;
• A one-page statement describing your current and future research interests