Postdoctoral Researcher

About the role

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene is seeking a qualified candidate for a full-time Research Scientist position at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032). The role involves performing research in a systems neuroscience laboratory that investigates how early-life adversity produces lasting changes in reward processing and the ventral pallidal-accumbal circuit mechanisms underlying them. The lab combines developmental stress models in mice with quantitative behavioral assays of reward sensitivity, in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetic circuit manipulation, viral tracing, and computational analysis to identify circuit changes linking early adversity to motivational and affective dysfunction in psychiatric illness. The mission of the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, focusing on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances, and to implement activities that reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations.

Responsibilities

• Designing and running longitudinal behavioral experiments, including developmental stress paradigms and reward-sensitivity assays
• Performing stereotaxic surgery, viral vector delivery, and implantation of optical fibers and recording devices, with recovery care
• Breeding and maintaining transgenic mouse colonies, including genotyping and records
• Conducting in vivo optogenetic, fiber photometry and electrophysiological experiments in awake behaving mice
• Performing histology, immunohistochemistry, whole-brain activity mapping, microscopy and atlas registration
• Building analysis pipelines for behavioral, imaging and electrophysiological data in Python, R or MATLAB
• Preparing figures and text for manuscripts, grants and progress reports; presenting at lab meetings and conferences
• Supervising and training research technicians, undergraduate students and PhD students, including day-to-day direction of their experimental work
• Maintaining IACUC and safety compliance and accurate experimental records
• Occasional evening or weekend work is required for animal care and experimental timelines

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's degree and (2) years of professional research experience in an appropriate field or master's degree in an appropriate field may substitute for one year of experience or a Ph.D.

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications: Preference may be given for some combination of the following; not all are expected.

• (2) years min: Doctoral training in neuroscience or a related field, with postdoctoral research experience.
• (2) years min: Rodent stress or developmental adversity models; longitudinal, ethological and sex-inclusive behavioral phenotyping.
• (2) years min: Stereotaxic surgery, viral delivery and tracing, transgenic colonies, activity-dependent tagging, chemogenetics, whole-brain mapping.
• (2) years min: Atlas registration and quantitative microscopy; programming in Python, R or MATLAB, with mixed-effects, trajectory or network analysis.
• (2) years min: Peer-reviewed publications, trainee mentoring, and grant or fellowship writing.
• (2) years min: Interest in learning optogenetics, fiber photometry and in vivo electrophysiology; training provided.

Benefits

Excellent Benefits Package.

Pay

Salary range: $67,552 - $81,257.

Schedule

Full-time position (100%); occasional evening or weekend work may be required for animal care and experimental timelines.