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Job Title

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Kirchner Lab

Agency

Texas A&M University Health Science Center

Department

Medical Physiology

Proposed Minimum Salary

Commensurate

Job Location

Bryan, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

A glimpse of the job

The Postdoctoral Research Associate conducts research into their field of expertise. Utilizes the skills and expertise granted to them by their education and experience to complete research projects in their field of expertise. Writes and may contribute to research papers, articles, and publications. Assists with the preparation and cleaning of worksite. May collaborate with other researchers and/or faculty both within and outside of Texas A&M. The Kirchner Laboratory is a new lab in the Department of Medical Physiology at Texas A&M College of Medicine and is primarily a patch clamp electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and immunohistochemistry lab.

Who we are

As one of the fastest-growing academic health centers in the nation, Texas A&M Health (https://health.tamu.edu/index.html) encompasses five colleges and numerous centers and institutes working together to improve health through transformative education, innovative research and team-based health care delivery.

What you need to know

Salary: W ill be commensurate based on the selected hire’s education and experience .

Please note: This position is grant funded; future employment may be contingent upon future funding .

Apply! Submitting a cover letter, resume/CV to assist us with the review process. You may upload these documents to the application under CV/Resume .

Required education and experience

+ Appropriate PhD i n neuroscience, neurophysiology, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

Patch Clamp electrophysiology:

+ ​ Prepping solutions for recordings, cutting live brain slices on a vibratome, and performing voltage and current clamp recordings in neurons.

+ Using optogenetics, photolytic uncaging, chemogenetics, fluorescent biosensors, electrical stimulation, and application of pharmacologic compounds during patch clamp experiments.

+ Maintaining the electrophysiology rig, keeping accurate records of experiments, performing data analysis, and creating figures for publications and grants.

Rodent survival surgery:

+ ​ Coronary ligation (heart failure surgery) for studying the disease in electrophysiology experiments.

+ Stereotaxic delivery of AAVs encoding fluorescent tracers, DREADDs or opsins to be used in electrophysiology experiments.

Calcium imaging:

+ ​ Utilizing calcium dyes or genetically encoded calcium sensors (i.e. GCaMP) to measure and quantify intracellular calcium levels in a live brain slice preparation.

+ Performing these experiments simultaneously with patch clamp.

Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

+ ​ Transcardial perfusion, fixation, cryostat sectioning, staining, and mounting tissue specimens.

+ Visualization and analysis of IHC imaging data

Multiunit electrophysiological experiments, particularly using Neuropixels

Software Expertise and Data Analysis:

+ ​ pCLAMP, ImageJ, MatLab, Imaris

+ Additional expertise using Igor Pro, Prism, Python, and Adobe Illustrator is a plus.

Training other laboratory members in the techniques listed above.

Responsibilities

+ Under general supervision, is responsible for conducting research into their field of expertise.

+ Utilizes knowledge and skills granted to them by their education and expertise to complete research projects in their field of expertise.

+ Assists with the preparation and cleaning of worksite.

+ Analyzes research data and summarizes results.

+ Writes and may contribute to research papers, articles, and publications.

+ May assist, mentor, and/or supervise student researchers and/or graduate students who are working on research related to the project.

+ Prepares presentation materials on research topic that may be presented to small and/or large groups.

+ Actively participates in the preparation of required technical progress reports to research sponsors.

+ Applies for career-appropriate grants and fellowships under the guidance of the PI.

+ Travels to scientific conferences to give presentations.

Why Texas A&M University?

We are a prestigious university with strong traditions, Core Values, and a community of caring and collaboration.   Amenities associated with a major university, such as sporting and cultural events, state-of-the-art recreation facilities, the Bush Library and Museum, and much more await you.   Experience all that a big city has to offer but with a reasonable cost-of-living and no long commutes.

+ Medical, (https://www.tamus.edu/benefits/medical/) prescription drug, dental, (https://www.tamus.edu/benefits/dental/) vision, life and AD&D, (https://www.tamus.edu/benefits/life-add/) flexible spending accounts , and long-term disability insurance (https://www.tamus.edu/benefits/long-term-disability/) with Texas A&M contributing to employee health and basic life premiums

+ 12-15 days (https://employees.tamu.edu/employee-relations/leave/index.html) of annual paid holidays

+ Up to eight hours of paid sick leave (https://employees.tamu.edu/employee-relations/leave/paid/sick.html)   and at least   eight hours of paid vacation (https://employees.tamu.edu/employee-relations/leave/paid/vacation.html)   each month

+ Automatic enrollment in the   Teacher Retirement System of Texas  (https://www.trs.texas.gov/Pages/Homepage.aspx)

+ Health and Wellness: Free exercise programs and release time (https://flourish.tamu.edu/wellness-release-time/)

+ Professional Development: All employees have access to free   LinkedIn Learning (https://linkedinlearning.tamu.edu/)   training, webinars, and limited financial support to attend conferences, workshops, and more

+ Educational release time and tuition assistance (https://livingwell.tamu.edu/employee-tuition-assistance)   for completing a degree while a Texas A&M employee

+ Living Well, (https://livingwell.tamu.edu/) a program at Texas A&M that has been built by employees, for employees

Instructions to Applicants: Applications received by Texas A&M University must either have all job application data entered, or a resume attached. Failure to provide all job application data or a complete resume could result in an invalid submission and a rejected application. We encourage all applicants to upload a resume or use a LinkedIn profile to prepopulate the online application.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Veterans/Disability Employer.