Postdoctoral Scientist - Neurobiology - Dr Albert Cardona - LMB 2765

Postdoctoral Scientist - Neurobiology - Dr Albert Cardona - LMB 2765

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Cambridge, United Kingdom

To work within the group of Dr Albert Cardona at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), within a programme aimed at studying the neural circuit basis of behaviour. Specifically, to map the synaptic wiring diagram, or connectome, of whole brains, using machine learning approaches to computer vision, in a disease animal model.

In order to compare the connectome across different experimental conditions, developmental stages, and strains or species, we must first measure the natural variability, by mapping the connectome across multiple individuals and statistically quantifying the individual differences from the common subset. Mapping the first connectome manually with computer-assisted means took 10 years and the effort of dozens of laboratories. Today, the knowledge acquired, the existence of one mapped connectome to act as reference, the fact that the larval fly brain is composed of stereotyped and uniquely identifiable neurons, plus machine learning approaches to computer vision, offers the opportunity to automatically map many connectomes across many animals, and therefore study how connectomes vary in development, in disease, and across closely related species. Identifying the differences across conditions will help understand the relation between neuronal circuit structure and function. The candidate will conduct a research project in applying new automated approaches to connectome mapping at scale to many brain volumes of both wild-type and disease models in fruit fly larvae.

The ideal candidate will have a PhD (or due to complete within 6 months) in neuroscience, or in a related field (physics, computer science, applied math, or biology in a quantitative programme within a computational group) where the research project broadly meets the scope of connectomics: bioimage informatics applied to large-scale volumetric densely-labelled data for circuit mapping and analysis, or at least, bioimage informatics applied to neuroscience data such as neuronal activity imaging, neuronal activity monitoring, behavioural tracking, or transcriptomics of neural tissue. Further details on the technical skills and expertise for the role is outlined in the job description.