Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Cellular Neuroscience

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Cellular Neuroscience to work in the group of Professor Colin Akerman in the Department of Pharmacology. This is a fixed-term post, for six months, funded by the Medical Research Council and is due to start no earlier than January 2026.

If successful, you will use experimental approaches to contribute to a project that is investigating aspects of synaptic inhibition and plasticity in the mammalian cortex. The research will employ studies in rodents, in order to characterize novel mechanisms by which synaptic efficacy changes as a function of the animal’s recent experience.

You should be an enthusiastic, motivated and highly organised scientist possessing excellent laboratory skills. Good communication skills and the ability to work both as part of a team, and independently, are essential. You will also provide guidance to less experienced members of the research group, including postdocs, research assistants, technicians, plus PhD and project students.

You must have:

• A relevant PhD/DPhil (or be close to completion), together with relevant experience in cellular neuroscience.
• Extensive experience of performing patch clamp electrophysiological recordings to quantify aspects of synaptic transmission in the rodent cortex.
• Extensive experience in performing immunohistochemistry and fluorescence imaging in rodent cortex.
• Extensive experience of performing in vivo gene delivery techniques in the rodent brain, such as viral delivery.
• Previous experience of developing custom analysis scripts for quantifying aspects of synaptic inhibition.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday 19 September 2025.