Postdoctoral Associate - Pain Neuroscience, Neuroimmunology, and Neuroendocrinology

The Midavaine and Kashem Laboratories at the University of Minnesota are recruiting multiple Postdoctoral Associates to pursue independent, high-impact research at the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, endocrinology, and reproductive biology, with a shared focus on understanding the biological mechanisms of pain. The two laboratories collaborate closely while offering distinct but complementary research programs and training opportunities.

Our research seeks to understand how immune, hormonal, and neural signals interact to regulate nociception, chronic pain, itch, inflammation, and reproductive physiology.

The Midavaine Laboratory investigates how sex hormones, reproductive states, and immune signals reshape the nervous system to regulate pain, sensory function, and reproductive physiology. We seek to understand why pain and sensory processing differ between females and males, how physiological states such as pregnancy remodel neural circuits, and how maternal experiences can shape sensory function across generations.

A central focus is hormone-dependent plasticity of sensory neurons and their associated immune and neural circuits. Our recent work established that meningeal regulatory T cells inhibit nociception in female mice through an enkephalin-δ-opioid receptor pathway dependent on ovarian hormones (Midavaine et al., Science, 2025). Building on this discovery, we are investigating how hormonal transitions reprogram sensory neurons, spinal glia, and brain circuits across the lifespan, from development through pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause, and how these adaptations influence susceptibility and resilience to pain.

Midavaine Lab Website

The Kashem Laboratory investigates how the immune and nervous systems communicate within tissues to control inflammation and sensation. We study how immune cells and tissue-innervating neurons signal to one another and how these interactions shape health and disease in tissues including the skin and meninges.

A major focus is endogenous opioid signaling in neuroimmune circuits. Our work identified regulatory T cell-derived enkephalin as an endogenous mechanism that acts through δ-opioid receptors on sensory neurons to suppress pain and itch. The laboratory is also expanding into human immunology and neuroscience using approaches including iPSC-derived systems and CRISPR screening to identify therapeutically relevant neuroimmune mechanisms and new targets for treating pain and itch.

Together, the laboratories provide a highly collaborative environment in which postdoctoral fellows can integrate complementary expertise in neurobiology, immunology, hormonal physiology, and sensory neuroscience. Our long-term goal is to uncover fundamental mechanisms controlling pain, sensation, and inflammation and translate these discoveries into new therapeutic strategies.

Kashem Lab Website

Midavaine E, Moraes BC, Benitez J, et al. Meningeal regulatory T cells inhibit nociception in female mice. Science 388:96–104 (2025).

Kashem SW, et al. Nociceptive sensory fibers drive IL-23 from CD301b+ dermal dendritic cells to provide protection from cutaneous

C. albicans infection. Immunity 43:515–526 (2015).

Kashem SW, et al. Candida albicans morphology and DC subsets determine T helper differentiation. Immunity 42:356–366 (2015).

The laboratories combine mouse genetics, neuroendocrine manipulation, cellular and molecular immunology, single-cell and spatial…