Postdoctoral Fellow Position in Neuroimaging based Biomarkers of Chronic Pain

DESCRIPTION

The Systems Neuroscience & Pain Laboratory at Stanford University (SNAPL) is actively recruiting a postdoctoral fellow who will join our research project on chronic pain. Funded by the National Institute of Health and directed by Professor Sean Mackey, in collaboration with an internationally renowned group of collaborators from the Departments of Computer Sciences, Sleep Medicine, Genetics, Neurosciences and others, our goal is to develop and validate objective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of chronic pain. The focus of work for this postdoc will be on the neuroimaging of people with chronic pain using structural and functional MRI techniques.

Our plan is to characterize neurobiological, multiomic, sensory testing, sleep/function actigraphy and other mechanisms underlying chronic pain and use this information to develop objective biomarkers of pain, ultimately, to derive new personalized interventions.

When you join, you will have opportunity to collaborate with top neuroscientists, psychologists, machine learning experts, sleep medicine researchers, genetics experts and pain specialists at Stanford. Additionally, you will have access to cutting-edge fMRI technology; to invent and develop your own related research. Multidisciplinary aspects of this project will allow you to explore diverse chronic pain topics ranging from biomarker design for degenerative conditions to heart rate variability as a simple biomarker for psychological disorders.

We have a strong track record for successfully transitioning postdoctoral fellows to independent grant funding and faculty positions. We can offer NIH T32 training to select candidates. The ideal candidate is a motivated problem solver and innovator who has a neuroscience background, enjoys challenging the paradigms of contemporary research and experimentation, is proficient with computer-aided analysis, and is enthusiastic and passionate about fMRI acquisition.

RESEARCH AREA

•  fMRI and behavioral data from Healthy Control and patients with musculoskeletal pain,
•  Multivariate pattern analysis of spinal cord/brain data for corticospinal biomarker,
• Integration of multimodal biomarkers into composite predictive signatures

QUALIFICATION

Applicants must have received, as of the beginning date of the appointment, an MD/PhD, MD or PhD or comparable doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution. Experience in neuroimaging analysis is a must. Additional experience in any of these is a plus:

1. Cognitive / Affective Neuroscience
2. Computational modeling / Machine Learning / Neural Networks / ICA
3. Chronic pain 4. MATLAB / Python / R / Linux / C 5. SPM / AFNI / FSL / fMRIPrep APPLICATION MATERIALS

Submit (1) CV, (2) NIH Biosketch, (3) Letter of Research Intent to our website: https://med.stanford.edu/pain/snapl/research-positions/postdoc-openings.html

Find instructions, blank format pages, and sample biosketches here: biosketch formats https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm#biosketch. Applicants follow non-fellowship templates. 
For more information, visit http://snapl.stanford.edu