Job Opportunities

Creed Lab

The Creed Lab (www.creedlab.org) seeks postdoctoral research associates for funded positions, available as early as Fall 2019. The goal of the lab is to determine synaptic and circuit plasticity underlying negative affect emerging in chronic pain mood and substance use disorders, and to pioneer neuromodulation therapies for these conditions. To this end, we use in vivo and patch clamp electrophysiology combined with optogenetic manipulations and fluorescent biosensors, behavioral pharmacology and molecular biology techniques.

Candidates should have a PhD in neuroscience, biology, pharmacology, biomedical engineering or a related discipline. The successful candidate will lead a project focusing on opioid-dependent plasticity in the mesolimbic dopamine system and how it contributes to overlapping affective symptoms of chronic pain and opioid addiction.

All projects use a variety of experimental techniques and are highly collaborative, and so candidates must be able to work effectively in teams within the lab and with other members of the WashU neuroscience community. The Creed Lab is housed in the Washington University Pain Center in the department of Anesthesiology, and provides a supportive and intellectually stimulating training environment.  Washington University in St. Louis consistently ranks in the top 10 Universities for Neuroscience in the country, and offers outstanding opportunities and a dynamic community for post-doctoral fellows.

To be considered, applicants should submit the following to Dr. Creed (meaghan.creed@wustl.edu):
1. CV
2. Statement of research interests and career goals
3. Contact information for at least two references

Gereau Lab

Postdoctoral Positions – Pain Circuits and Neuro-technologies
Post-Doctoral Positions in Pain Neurobiology
Washington University School of Medicine

Post-doctoral positions are available in the Gereau laboratory (www.gereaulab.org) in the Washington University Pain Center and Departments of Anesthesiology and Neuroscience. The lab offers diverse training in advanced techniques in neuroscience including opportunities in ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiology (patch clamp, single unit recordings), imaging (photometry, miniscopes, 2p) and genetic analysis (bulk / single-cell RNAseq).

The lab is currently recruiting for multiple positions, with opportunities in the following areas:

Neural circuit dynamics underlying chronic pain: This position will incorporate state of the art optogenetics, patch clamp electrophysiology, in vivo imaging of neuronal activity, circuit mapping and development/refinement of novel micro-scale optoelectronic systems, with a goal of understanding circuit and cellular mechanisms of acute and chronic pain. See Massaly et al, Neuron 2019; Samineni et al, eNeuro 2017; Siuda et al, Neuron 2015

Human neuroscience – cells and circuits: This position will take advantage of the unique infrastructure the lab has developed allowing acquisition of live human tissues (dorsal root ganglia, spinal cord) enabling genetic, electrophysiological, and imaging studies on human pain cells and circuits. Opportunities for projects involving electrophysiology, imaging, single-cell sequencing and others are available. See Valtcheva et al, Nature Protocols 2016; Sheahan et al, eNeuro 2018; Davidson et al, Pain 2014

Development innovative neurotechnologies: This position will work in partnership with the materials science group in the lab of John Rogers to develop new technologies for measurement and manipulation of neural circuits in vivo. See Mickle et al, Nature, 2019; Zhang et al, Science Adv. 2019; Samineni et al, Pain 2017; Shin et al, Neuron 2017; Park et al, Nature Biotechnology 2015.

A successful candidate should have the following qualifications:
• Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Cell Biology or related field, with a track record of productivity and innovation
• Solid background and hands-on experience in electrophysiology, in vivo imaging, biomedical engineering, or optogenetics. Experience in coding (MATLAB, R) is a plus.
• Creative thinking skills, command of the neuroscience literature
• Affinity for performing experimental animal research
• Ability to work collaboratively with excellent communication skills

The Gereau lab has a long history of success in providing strong mentoring and training to prepare postdocs for their future careers. Trainees from the lab have gone on to faculty positions in academia (NIH Intramural Research Program, Vanderbilt, Washington University, Duquesne, Drexel, Rutgers, University of Cincinnati, University of Florida, University of Pittsburgh, University of Catania, Fujen Catholic University), and senior positions in industry (Pfizer, Wyeth, IBM Watson Health, Vertex, Abbvie).

For more information/application please contact Robert Gereau at: gereaur@wustl.edu.

Applications for the position should include a curriculum vitae and names/contact information of three professional references.  Washington University is an equal opportunity employer.