Opportunities

Published 5 September 2019

We are recruiting a neuroscience postdoc

illustration_BrandonWe are seeking a postdoctoral fellow for a fully-funded position to work on a collaborative project between two teams specializing in cerebellar physiology (Brandon Stell and Céline Auger) and spinal cord physiology (Marin Manuel and Daniel Zytnicki) at the SPPIN Institute in central Paris. The successful candidate will be involved in a multifaceted project studying the interaction of the cerebellum and the spinal cord in motor control. The project combines in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings in awake, behaving animals.

The cerebellum receives both a copy of the motor discharge and reafferent sensory inputs and is known to coordinate motor commands, however, due to the difficulty in isolating reafferent sensory inputs from the corollary discharge of the motor command it is not known how the cerebellar cortex process information to coordinate movements in even a routine behavior such as walking (Medina, 2011). We are recruiting a postdoc to work between the two teams and combine our unique expertise to break the sensorimotor loop of a simple locomotion behavior into individual sensory and motor components. In vivo 2-photon imaging and electrophysiology will be used to understand how individual components of locomotion are processed by populations of cells in cerebellar microcircuits. Knowledge of the individual components in a reduced preparation will be used to understand how sensory feedback interacts with motor commands in the cerebellum of awake mice running on a treadmill.

Applicants should hold a PhD in or related to neuroscience. The ideal candidate will have practical skills for in vivo experimental work, a background in neurophysiology, and a deep desire to understand the principles underlying the functioning of the nervous system. Animal surgery, animal handling and programming skills in Python are beneficial.

For applications we request: (i) a cover letter including a statement of motivation, (ii) a curriculum vitae, as well as, (iii) the names and addresses, including emails, of academic references.

Project Leaders: