Postdoctoral Associate: Collaborative research on fly ventral nervous system : US, VA, United States

HHMI's Janelia Research Campus, a unique, world-class research community near Washington, D.C., is dedicated to understanding the function of neural circuits and developing synergistic imaging technology. Our highly collaborative structure is designed to support collaborative interdisciplinary work in small lab groups.

Postdoctoral positions are available for work at Janelia in Ashburn, VA for a collaborative project between the groups of Gwyneth Card, Wyatt Korff, David Stern, Jim Truman (Janelia), Itai Cohen (Cornell University) and Michael Dickinson (Caltech). The goal of the project is to make and study cell-type specific Drosophila lines that enable probing of the anatomical, behavioral and functional organization of the Ventral Nervous System of flies, specifically focusing on wing and haltere circuitry. For recent examples of this general approach applied to the fly mushroom body, see Aso et al. (Elife 2014, 3:e04577 and 3:e04580). Although the initial effort to generate and anatomically characterize these lines will be substantial, there will also be unique opportunities to collaborate with leading researchers in the field to study the behavioral function of individual cell classes and circuits.

Principal Responsibilities:

• Identifying candidate neurons by studying confocal image stacks of existing Gal4 driver lines.
• Generation of cell-type specific driver lines by genetic screening.
• Generating a detailed neuroanatomical atlas of the wing and haltere neuropil at the light microscope level.
• Perform fly crosses and verify expression patterns through dissection and confocal imaging.
• Serving as an information hub among collaborators providing regular updates.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in neuroscience, neuroanatomy, behavioral genetics, neurophysiology or similar.
• Experience in Drosophila neurobiology preferred but not required.
• Experience with confocal microscopy and image analysis.
• Ability to work and support interdisciplinary work in small groups.
• Experience with optogenetics.