Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Drosophila neurogenetics

Post-doctoral Research Fellow sought to investigate how experience shapes the brain

An enthusiastic Post-doctoral Research Fellow is sought to investigate how experience shapes the brain and how this in turn modifies brain function and behaviour. We will use the fruit-fly Drosophila as a model organism to investigate how the brain responds to life stressors, using behavioural neurogenetics of adult flies. Molecular and cell biology, laser scanning confocal microscopy, imaging, optogenetics, neural circuit manipulation and analysis will also be used. We will discover and test underlying molecular and circuit mechanisms that regulate structural brain plasticity and degeneration, linking molecules to cells, neural circuits, neurites, synapses and behaviour.

This post is for three years and it is integrated into a larger project within a Wellcome Trust funded research programme led by Professor A Hidalgo into brain plasticity and degeneration. You will work together with two other post-docs and PhD students, as a team, to discover molecular, cellular, circuit and behavioural bases of how the brain changes as we go through life. This project builds on our previous findings e.g. Li et al 2020 eLife 9:e52743; Sun et al 2024 eLife 13:RP102222. Our discoveries will contribute to understanding the structural basis of brain function and mental health.

This post is at the Hidalgo Lab, Centre for Neurogenetics and School of Biosciences, in the beautiful University of Birmingham campus in the heart of the lively and multicultural city of Birmingham, United Kingdom.