Postdoctoral Fellow – M. Winding Social Circuits and Connectomics Laboratory
Reporting to: Michael Winding, Group Leader
Contact term: This is a full-time, fixed term (4 years) position on Crick terms and conditions of employment.
Please note there is no closing date for this role and applicants will be considered on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible if you are interested in the role.
The Research Group
The postdoctoral position will be in Dr. Michael Winding’s laboratory.
The Social Circuits and Connectomics Lab investigates how neuronal circuits in the brain drive social interactions between animals. To make this problem tractable, the lab focuses on cooperative foraging between fruit fly larvae. In this behaviour, individual animals come together and synchronise their movements to dig deeper into the food substrate and feed more efficiently. We have previously mapped the entire brain of this animal with synapse resolution (Winding, Pedigo et al. Science 2023), and will experimentally test the functional and behavioural roles of individual circuit elements in the connectome using linked genetic driver lines. These rich datasets are ripe for computational analysis and modelling, allowing for mechanistic understanding of circuit function and social behaviour.
Overview of the lab’s research vision can be found at:
https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/labs/michael-winding
Research techniques in the laboratory include: electron microscopy imaging by enhanced FIBSEM, automated reconstruction using machine learning pipelines, comparative connectomics and network analysis, functional imaging, behavioural opto/thermogenetics, 3D printing and design, building Raspberry Pi-based behavioural rigs.
The Project
The postdoctoral fellow will be part of a comparative connectomics project in the lab. We have identified environmental and genetic manipulations that disrupt normal social interactions in fruit fly larvae. The project involves investigating the circuitry changes in the brain that causes these deficits in social behaviour. We will use volume electron microscopy (EM) to image with synapse-resolution the entire brains of animals with social deficits, in collaboration with Lucy Collinson at the Crick’s EM STP. The postdoctoral fellow will help map the circuitry from EM using a combination of automated reconstruction and proofreading, followed by modelling and network analysis in collaboration with Carey Priebe at John Hopkins University. The goal is to determine how brain miswiring disrupts social behaviours.
This will be a group effort; the postdoctoral fellow will work alongside a PhD student and with the other members of the lab. The applicant should therefore work well in a team. After circuitry changes are identified, the fellow will model the possible functional and behavioural effects of these changes and collaborate with lab members to test predictions experimentally. To accomplish these tasks, the applicant should have a strong computational background.
The postholder will have the following responsibilities:
Postdoctoral Fellows will lead their own project, contribute to other projects on a collaborative basis (both in the lab and with external collaborators) and may guide PhD students in their research. The ability to work in a team is essential.
Key experience and competencies
The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values:
Bold; Open; Collegial
Essential
Desirable
About Us
At the Crick, we conduct research at the forefront of biomedical research. We combine rigour with an open and collaborative culture, and are outward-looking, reflecting our status as a partnership of six organisations aiming to pool knowledge, ideas and resources.
We have a wide research portfolio with no divisions or departments, bringing biomedical researchers together with clinicians, physical scientists and applied scientists from our pharmaceutical partners.
We aim to attract the most talented researchers and support them to tackle innovative research questions. Our Science Technology Platforms (STPs) provide our researchers with access to state-of-the-art technology and expertise. In this project, the postdoctoral fellow will minimally collaborate with the Software Engineering & AI STP and the Electron Microscopy STP.
We provide an excellent learning environment with dedicated education programmes in public engagement with science, education and personal development, and a postdoc training programme that prepares scientists for leadership roles in science.
Key information
Job reference
R1447
Salary
From £41,935 with benefits, subject to skills and experience.
Hours per week
36 (full time)
Contact
Academic Europe, the European career network for Academics, Researchers and Scientists
