Postdoctoral Researcher

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 View email address on click.appcast.io

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.