Division of Science

Swartz Postdoctoral Fellowships in Theoretical or Computational Neuroscience are available at Brandeis. Recent fellows have worked in the labs of Christine Grienberger, Shantanu Jadhav, Don Katz, Eve Marder, Paul Miller, and Jonathan Touboul. Anyone with strong mathematical and computational skills with an interest in a modeling project in neuroscience is welcome to apply. If interested, please send a C.V. and research interest, which should match those of one of the labs, to both Paul Miller (pmiller@brandeis.edu) and the PI of the lab you wish to join. More information can be found here.

Research interests and contact details of labs can be found here.

Full-time postdoctoral position to work on a NIMH funded multi-site study lead by Dr. Roselinde Kaiser in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder and Dr. Hannah Snyder in the Department of Psychology at Brandeis University. This postdoc will work jointly with both PIs and will have the option of working either from CU Boulder or Brandeis (Boston metro area) based on their geographic preference. The position is renewable for up to four years on the current grant (depending on performance), the possibility of further renewal depending on funding availability.

The person who fills this position will become part of a team working on a longitudinal study with emerging adult college students that investigates neurocognitive risk and resilience for internalizing psychopathology. The study takes a longitudinal, mechanistic approach to understand how distinct profiles of cognitive functioning (related to executive functioning and responsiveness to reward or threat) interact to confer general or specific vulnerability for internalizing symptoms (anhedonia, anxious arousal, and mania). Methods include cognitive tasks, cardiac electrophysiology (ECG and ICG), questionnaires and daily dairies, and clinical diagnostic interviews.

Candidates should have a Ph.D. in psychology, neuroscience, computer science or a related field. The successful candidate should have excellent organizational, analytic, writing, and interpersonal skills as well as research experience with cognitive and/or electrophysiological measures and human subjects. Computer programming skills and knowledge and experience with advanced statistical techniques, such as HLM, SEM, growth curve modeling, and machine learning, are highly desirable. The successful candidate will be someone who enjoys working as part of a team and learning new techniques independently to advance science.  

A number of previously collected behavioral and neuroimaging data sets are available in each lab which will be available the postdoc to analyze and write papers from immediately as new data continue to be collected.

The postdoc will have opportunities for career development and mentoring toward applying for faculty or other positions. Other opportunities are also available: 1) development of additional grants (e.g., F32, K Award, R grants), 2) pursuing additional training and research (e.g., developmental neuroimaging, psychodiagnostics), 3) potential adjunct teaching opportunities.

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled, with an ideal employment start in summer or fall of 2023. To apply for the position please send a CV and statement of research interests to Dr. Roselinde Kaiser (raddlab@colorado.edu) and Dr. Hannah Snyder (hrsnyder@brandeis.edu). Informal pre-application inquiries are welcome. The University of Colorado Boulder and Brandeis University are Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employers and encourages women, minorities, economically disadvantaged and persons with disabilities to apply.

Postdoctoral positions are available in the lab of Dr. Shantanu Jadhav in the Neuroscience Program at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.

The Jadhav lab is a Systems Neuroscience lab investigating neural mechanisms underlying cognition in health and disease using rodent models. They investigate the role of hippocampal, cortical and subcortical circuits in learning and memory-guided decision making using a combination of behavior, in vivo physiological recordings, optogenetics, and computational methods.  Candidates with experience in any of these areas - behavior, electrophysiology, optogenetics, strong data analysis skills, computational models are encouraged to apply. The lab is funded by NIH grants, and we are a core member of the SFARI (Simons Foundation for Autism Research Initiative) Autism Rat Model Consortium.

The Jadhav lab is interested in strong and motivated candidates with a record of productivity and with skills in diverse Science or Engineering disciplines, including neuroscience, biology, engineering and physics. Brandeis University is an exciting place for Neuroscience research and provides an exceptional training environment for postdocs with a unique, collaborative research community spanning Biology, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Psychology. The University benefits from many shared resources including core facilities, seminars, a strong neuroscience research community, and interdisciplinary training and research programs. Brandeis is located in close proximity to Boston with easy commuting options, offering a vibrant place to live and work.

To apply, please send Dr. Shantanu Jadhav (shantanu@brandeis.edu) your CV, a brief cover letter with description of research experience and interests, and contact information for 3 references.

Postdoctoral positions are available in the lab of Suzanne Paradis, PhD in the Department of Biology and Program in Neuroscience at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. Research in the NIH-funded laboratory seeks to define the genes that instruct neurons to establish and modify their connectivity, with the overall goal of understanding how neural network dysfunction contributes to neurological disorders. The lab employs biochemistry, molecular biology, genetic, electrophysiology, and imaging approaches in rodents to accomplish this goal.

The Paradis lab is seeking a talented and motivated electrophysiologist who is interested in augmenting their physiology skills with training in molecular biology and mouse genetic techniques in the area of epilepsy. The lab recently discovered that Sema4D, signaling through its high affinity receptor PlexinB1, regulates inhibitory synapse formation on a rapid time scale (i.e. minutes to hours) both in vitro and in vivo. Further, Sema4D administration suppresses seizure activity in mouse models of epilepsy. The lab seeks a neuroscientist interested in studying Sema4D-dependent changes in GABAergic synaptic transmission in order to understand mechanism by which Sema4D administration suppresses seizures.

The ideal candidate would have experience performing voltage-clamp recordings from acute hippocampal or cortical slices. However, any proficient electrophysiologist with an interest in synaptic physiology will be given serious consideration. Successful applicants will have a strong record of productivity and have published first author papers in internationally recognized journals. In addition, strong preference will be given to applicants that are eligible for appointment to an NIH T32 training grant (US citizen or permanent resident), are less than 24 months out from their PhD defense date, and are able to begin work by June 1, 2023.

Brandeis University, located 9 miles outside of Boston with easy commuting options, has a unique, collaborative life science research community spanning Biology, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Chemistry. The University benefits from many shared resources including core facilities, seminars, a strong neuroscience research community, and interdisciplinary training and research programs.

The Paradis lab believes that a diverse and inclusive community is a prerequisite for success in scientific discovery. They welcome people from all races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, countries of origin, ages, and abilities. They do great science by working together, respecting one another, sharing their collective knowledge, and occasionally even having fun. 

Interested candidates should send a curriculum vitae including email addresses for 3 references to paradis@brandeis.edu.

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position to work on longitudinal and intervention projects in the areas of cognition, assessment of cognitive status, personality, health, behavior change, and physical activity in adulthood and later life. The position involves engagement with multiple studies in an active lab. Opportunities include collaboration on new data collection and secondary data analysis of longitudinal data for the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and design and analysis of experimental intervention research through the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions (RALI).  Primary responsibilities will include management of  new projects, data analysis; preparation of manuscripts; presentations at conferences, and participation in interdisciplinary research groups. Qualifications include a Ph.D. in the social, behavioral or health sciences; relevant research experience; strong statistical and writing skills; good communication skills; and the ability to work effectively with others. Applicants should have a background in two or more of the following areas: cognitive aging, assessment of cognitive status, personality, lifespan development and aging, health psychology, intervention research, behavior change, or exercise science, and have expertise in experimental and developmental research methods. Proficiency in longitudinal data analysis is required and experience with large data sets, multilevel modeling, latent growth models, and structural equation modeling is highly desirable. The position provides salary and benefits consistent with those for NIH postdoctoral fellows, and the appointment is for one year with the opportunity to renew for one or two more years. Inquiries may be directed to Dr. Margie Lachman via email (lachman@brandeis.edu). To be considered for the position, candidates should submit their application materials to: postdocpsych@brandeis.edu.  Please include: a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, statement of research interests, statistical experience and career goals, and relevant publications. Please ask three referees to submit confidential letters of recommendation. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled. The position can begin as soon as January 1, 2023, with some flexibility in the start date.

 Brandeis University is committed to providing its students, faculty and staff with an environment conducive to learning and working and where all people are treated with respect and dignity. Toward that end, it is essential that Brandeis be free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, ancestry, religious creed, gender identity and expression, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status or any other category protected by law (also known as membership in a "protected class").  

Lifespan Lab
Posted: 11/29/22

Albion Lawrence (Brandeis) and Jörn Callies (Caltech) are seeking a postdoc to work on a NASA-funded project studying higher-order statistics of ocean currents via satellite altimetry, in situ observations, and numerical modeling. The position is for three years, contingent on performance. It is a joint Brandeis–Caltech position with employment through Brandeis. The 2023-24 academic year will take place at Caltech (when Lawrence will be a visiting fellow there); the location in subsequent years is open to negotiation.

We are interested in candidates with a background in physical oceanography, high energy physics, condensed matter physics, cosmology, or a related field. We seek someone who has a keen interest in oceanography and geophysical fluid dynamics, although prior work in these fields is not required. Prior computational experience is helpful.

academicjobsonline.org
Posted: 11/21/2022

James Haber is looking for a postdoc to work on double-strand break repair in yeast. More specifically, the Haber lab is interested in the origin of mutations arising during gene editing and other types of DNA repair. 

The Haber lab has previously found that the mutation rate accompanying double-strand break repair is 1000 times higher than seen for spontaneous mutations in the same sequences. Moreover, the spectrum of mutations is very different, with many mutations reflecting the instability of the DNA repair polymerase complex, leading to increases in structural variants: deletions, tandem duplications, quasipalindrome mutations and interchromosomal template switches, even when the second template, on a different chromosome, is only 72% identical to the initial donor template, first described in (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20595613/; pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25066232/).  Most recently the lab has been studying mutations arising during Cas9-mediated gene editing. They have also devised specific assays for different types of structural variants and are interested in how alterations of the DNA repair machinery affect these types of mutations.

Other work in the lab includes studies of the tolerance of mismatches by the Rad51 recombinase pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36054210/; differences between Rad51 and the meiotic homolog, Dmc1; roles of break-induced replication pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34384659/; repair of double-strand breaks in mitochondria; regulation of chromosome mobility; and regulation of the DNA damage checkpoint pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32176524/. 

Applicants should send a CV and their thoughts about what they would like to work on to Jim Haber (haber@brandeis.edu).  Brandeis University, committed to diversity, equality and inclusion, is about 10 miles from the center of Boston/Cambridge, easily reached by public transportation. 

Previous experience working in yeast is not necessary. They will train you in all the necessary techniques. But PhD-level experience in genetics and in molecular biology is required. 

jobboard.genetics-gsa.org
Posted: 11/10/22