Postdoctoral Researcher in ”Neural circuit assembly” Full-time

Postdoctoral Researcher in “Neural Circuit Assembly”

The research group led by Michael Ratz at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology is looking for a postdoctoral researcher. The lab is located at KI's Solna campus in Biomedicum, a modern and highly interdisciplinary research environment designed to promote collaboration and cutting-edge biomedical research.

The Ratz lab develops and applies next-generation molecular technologies — including cellular barcoding, viral circuit tracing, and spatial transcriptomics — to understand how neural circuits are assembled in the mammalian brain in health and disease.

Your Mission

The project combines molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, and computational method development to study the formation and organization of neural circuits in the mouse brain.

You will use state-of-the-art approaches including barcoded viral connectivity tracing, 3D spatial transcriptomics, advanced imaging, and computational analysis to investigate how genetically defined neuronal populations establish precise connectivity during brain development.

Your main responsibilities will be to:

• design and perform technically advanced experiments in vivo.
• develop and optimize experimental workflows.
• analyze and integrate large-scale transcriptomic and imaging datasets.
• and contribute to the conceptual development of the project together with experimental and computational collaborators.

The position offers substantial opportunities for scientific independence, technical innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Your Profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctoral researcher, a PhD or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish PhD is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. Completion of your doctoral degree within the last three years is considered an advantage. If there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

Qualifications

• You are a creative, motivated, and collaborative scientist with a strong interest in neural circuit development and/or molecular neuroscience.
• You hold a PhD in molecular neuroscience, molecular biology, developmental neurobiology, or a related field.
• You have substantial hands-on experience working with mouse models and neural tissue preparations.
• You have documented experience with single-cell transcriptomics approaches (e.g. Smart-seq2/3, 10x Genomics, Patch-seq, or related methods), including data analysis using R and/or Python.
• You have experience with fluorescence imaging techniques (e.g. confocal or epifluorescence microscopy) and image analysis tools such as ImageJ/Fiji.
• Experience with electrophysiology, viral approaches, spatial transcriptomics, or circuit tracing methods is highly valued.
• You can work independently and drive technically challenging projects, while also contributing positively to a multidisciplinary research environment.
• You have strong communication skills and excellent written and spoken English.

Merits

Experience in one or more of the following areas is considered an advantage:

• Spatial transcriptomics or spatially resolved imaging methods.
• Viral tracing approaches (e.g. AAV, rabies-based tracing).

What Do We Offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• PhD certificate
• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.