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Postdoc Fellow, 3-photon imaging of sensory coding

Employer
University of Minnesota
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Salary
From $53,000 up to $65,000 per year + benefits including health care and a retirement plan
Closing date
Jun 14, 2021

Job Details

A post-doctoral fellowship is available in the laboratory of Prakash Kara (see karalab.org). Candidates will use three-photon imaging to determine the feature selectivity of neurons from all layers of the visual cortex. Particular emphasis will be on binocular integration. We have a species comparative approach because of the differences in the functional micro-architecture of V1 in rodents vs. non-rodents. Some recent publications regarding sensory coding in different model systems and our technical innovations in three-photon imaging from our laboratory include:

  1. Farinella DM, Roy A, Liu CJ, and Kara P (2021) Improving laser standards for three-photon microscopy. Neurophotonics 8, 015009.
  2. Liu CJ, Roy A, Simons AA, Farinella DM, Kara P (2020) Three-photon imaging of synthetic dyes in deep layers of the neocortex. Scientific Reports 10, 16351.
  3. O’Herron P, Levy M, Woodward JJ, Kara P (2020) An unexpected dependence of cortical depth in shaping neural responsiveness and selectivity in mouse visual cortexeNeuro 7 ENEURO.0497-19.2020
  4. O’Herron P, Chhatbar PY, Levy M, Shen Z, Schramm AE, Lu Z, Kara P (2016) Neural correlates of single vessel hemodynamic responses in vivo. Nature 534,378-382.

Regarding three-photon imaging, the lab currently has two independent systems in two separate rooms. The first microscope is sourced with a Spirit-NOPA laser from Spectra-Physics while the second microscope has a White Dwarf OPCPA from Class5 Photonics (Hamburg Germany). Both systems have two-photon laser sources also. We currently have a 5 x 5 mm microscope in production for wide-field three-photon imaging. Our lab is located in the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota. Thus, members in the Kara lab collaborate with the ultra-high field fMRI group to perform fMRI imaging on the same subjects we use for three-photon imaging.

Applicants must hold a Ph.D. degree at the time of hire. Candidates must be highly motivated with strong quantitative analytical skills, have experience with in vivo imaging or electrophysiology, have good interpersonal and organizational skills, and be prepared to work within and across interactive laboratory environments. Salary will be commensurate with experience, according to NIH guidelines.

Applications must include a curriculum vitae with bibliography, a cover letter indicating suitability for the advertised position, the names & emails of three academic references so that the PI may request three letters of recommendation prior to an interview. These applications may be emailed to pkara@umn.edu or applied for directly on the campus job site https://hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/339175 

Company

The University of Minnesota faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 29 Nobel Prizes in a variety of fields including physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry. The University of Minnesota is one of America's Public Ivy universities, which refers to top public universities in the United States capable of providing a collegiate experience comparable with the Ivy League. The Twin Cities campus has the sixth largest student body in the United States, with 51,848 students in 2017-18. The Kara Lab moved to the University of Minnesota in 2018 as part of a new initiative, the Medical Discovery Team (MDT) in Optical Imaging and Brain Science. This MDT is a multi-disciplinary effort focused on mapping the detailed circuits that underlie sensation, perception and complex behaviors in the developing and mature brain. State-of-the-art optical imaging and optical stimulation techniques that provide sub-micron spatial resolution are used in experimental model systems of health, injury and disease.

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