Job Description

Postdoctoral Position: Molecular Mechanisms and Neural Circuits of Fear Memory, Maternal and Social Behavior

Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, laboratory of Dr. Gleb Shumyatsky.

A key question in research on memory and behavior is how the brain responds to environmental stimuli, and a major challenge here is the heterogeneity of cell-signaling pathways, brain cells and neural networks. We study activity-dependent molecular processes in the amygdala-, hippocampus- and prefrontal cortex-associated networks at the level of neural circuits and single cells using mouse genetics. Our focus is on fear memory, anxiety, social and maternal behavior as well as autism- and depressive-like behaviors in a mouse.

Our recent work has identified dynamic changes in microtubules during memory encoding (Uchida et al., Nature Communications 2014; Martel et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2016). We also described epigenetic modifications and new gene targets of CREB-dependent transcription following learning (Uchida et al., Cell Reports 2017). More recently, we have found a molecular pathway regulating dopamine function during stress-enhanced fear extinction (Morishita et al, Molecular Psychiatry 2024).

The successful candidate will have a recent PhD in molecular biology or neuroscience and a track record of first-class science demonstrated by first-author peer-reviewed scientific articles. Expected experience is in molecular biology (strong background in cloning, mutagenesis, immunoprecipitation, RNAseq and mouse genetics), neural circuits and mouse behavior. Salary is from $63,000 and commensurate with experience.

Please send your CV, a brief statement of research interests and three references to gleb@hginj.rutgers.edu

Rutgers is located in central New Jersey, one hour away from New York City and Philadelphia, and enjoys a diverse international academic and cultural community.

Applications will be immediately reviewed until the position is filled.

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