Postdoc Opening

Affiliation
Axon Guidance and Neural Connectivity Unit
Position Type
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Description

Postdoctoral positions are available for creative, independent scientists interested either in the development of neural wiring, or in its dissolution during neurodegenerative disease. Two projects are ongoing in the lab.

  1. The mechanism of axon growth and guidance in vivo. This project is built on high-resolution live imaging of the cytoskeleton in a single, identified neuron in the developing Drosophila wing. We have now integrated those imaging data with results from detailed biochemical and genetic studies, and computational simulations of cytoskeletal dynamics, to develop a novel “active matter” model of growth cone mechanism that is grounded in the basic biophysics of actomyosin networks. Key active questions include the role of the microtubule cytoskeleton in growth cone advance, and computational dissection of how a gradient of signaling activity directs the spatial redistribution of actin.
     
  2. The mechanism(s) of neurodegeneration, and in particular their relationship to aging. By exploiting a Drosophila model of the “tauopathy” group of neurodegenerative diseases, we have been able to separate the cellular and molecular pathologies of neurodegeneration into those that are inherently due to aging and those that are independent of aging. Our aging and degeneration project is incorporating both multi-omic analyses (transcriptomics, microbiome sequencing, metabolomics, bioinformatics) and reductionist methods (genetics, biochemistry, molecular manipulations of key regulators) to develop a new perspective on the relationship between life, death, aging and degeneration. Key active questions include dissecting how aging is regulated both by the microbiome, and by microbiome-independent processes autonomous to the organism.

Application Instructions

Please send a letter or email describing your research interests and long-term goals, a CV and the names of 3 references to:

Edward Giniger, Ph.D.
Axon Guidance and Neural Connectivity Unit, NINDS, NIH
Senior Investigator
9000 Rockville Pike 35, 1C1002
Bethesda, MD 20892-4478
Office: (301) 451-3890
Fax: (301) 480-5368
Lab : (301) 594-9668
Email: ginigere@ninds.nih.gov


NIH AND DHHS ARE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYERS