Postdoctoral Researcher

The Spellman Lab at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine is looking for postdoctoral researchers to study the physiological, anatomical, and computational circuit mechanisms that support executive function in the mammalian brain. Our work spans basic and translational neuroscience, with a particular interest in how populations of neurons in the prefrontal cortex and interconnected brain regions represent and update information needed for flexible behavior, and how these circuit mechanisms are altered in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease.

A major focus of this position will be a newly funded NIH project investigating how prefrontal circuit and cholinergic dynamics change during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and contribute to impairments in cognitive flexibility. This work combines longitudinal two-photon calcium imaging in behaving mice with projection-specific circuit targeting, genetically encoded neuromodulator sensors, optogenetic and chemo genetic manipulations, and flexible decision-making tasks. The project will examine both the emergence of circuit dysfunction across disease progression and whether targeted modulation of cortical cholinergic signaling can restore normal circuit function and behavior.

More broadly, the lab maintains an active basic-science program aimed at understanding the circuit mechanisms of executive function independent of disease. Ongoing projects investigate how prefrontal and thalamic circuits encode rules, choices, outcomes, and changing task demands, how cholinergic signaling regulates these representations, and how distributed cortical and subcortical networks support cognitive flexibility and selective attention. These studies use a combination of two-photon and volumetric calcium imaging, optogenetics and chemo genetics, projection-specific circuit approaches, and computational analyses of neural population activity and behavior.

Applicants interested in using integrated approaches for recording and manipulating neural activity to understand the circuit basis of cognition are strongly encouraged to apply. There is substantial opportunity for postdoctoral fellows to develop independent projects within these broader research themes.

The University of Connecticut School of Medicine is a globally competitive R1 research institution situated in the scenic natural landscape of Connecticut’s Farmington Valley. The Neuroscience department is a tight-knit, highly collaborative training environment that draws on strengths in genetics, cell physiology, neurodevelopment, behavioral modeling, and circuit- and systems-level neurophysiology. Postdocs will benefit from a high level of career support and close mentorship.

Applicants should have a doctoral degree in Neuroscience, Biomedical Sciences, Bioinformatics, Physiology, or a related discipline. An ability to clearly communicate scientific ideas is required. The projects will involve the use of 2-photon and/or single-photon imaging in awake, behaving rodents, as well as computational modeling of behavioral and physiological data. Skill and experience in analysis of complex data sets (machine learning tools in Python/Matlab/R, etc) will be helpful, and willingness to learn is a must.