Postdoctoral Research Associate

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Connectomic Scientist
NIH BRAIN CONNECTS is a transformative project of the US BRAIN Initiative, with the overall goal of generating wiring diagrams that can span entire mammalian brains across multiple scales. The Princeton Neuroscience Institute is a key performer in BRAIN CONNECTS, and participates in a consortium that will image a large part of the mouse hippocampal formation (HPF), in order to demonstrate the feasibility of scaling up to a whole mouse brain. The imaging will utilize a new method called IBEAM-mSEM that integrates an ion beam milling apparatus with a multibeam scanning electron microscope. The IBEAM-mSEM system is being constructed by a technology team assembled for the project. We are seeking a postdoctoral research associate who will focus on the scientific goals of the project, which are to relate the connectomic organization of the hippocampus and medial entorhinal cortex to the functions of navigation and memory. Responsibilities are detailed below, and include IBEAM-mSEM image acquisition and post-reconstruction interpretation and analysis. The Princeton Neuroscience Institute is the only site in the world that can boast of both transmission EM and scanning EM instruments for high-throughput connectomics. The Institute also leads the FlyWire Consortium, which in 2023 released the first connectome of an adult brain, that of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. BRAIN CONNECTS is intended to extend this success to mammalian brains.

Key Responsibilities:

1.Interact with neuroscience stakeholders and advisors to decide on the location of the HPF subvolume that is optimal for scientific discovery.
2.EM sample preparation. Prepare mouse brain tissue for EM imaging by fixation, staining, and embedding.
3.Cutting and collection. Cut and collect sections of brain volumes approaching the centimeter-scale.
4.EM imaging. Operate the IBEAM-mSEM to image the mouse hippocampal formation (HPF), a critical brain region for memory and spatial navigation. Image acquisition will be done in collaboration with Harvard University and HHMI Janelia, yielding a dataset that is expected to exceed ten petabytes.
5.Ground truthing. Supervise image analysts to annotate ground truth for neuronal boundary detection and synapse detection tasks. The ground truth data will be supplied to Consortium collaborators at Google Research as training data for convolutional nets.
6.Post-reconstruction analysis. Work with Consortium collaborators (MIT, University of Cambridge) to analyze and interpret the reconstructed neural circuits, including defining connectomic cell types and testing neural network models of memory and navigation. 
7.Cross-modal integration. Collaborate with the Allen Institute to establish correspondences with light microscopic reconstructions of HPF neurons.

Essential Qualifications:

*PhD degree in neuroscience, physical sciences, or engineering.
*Experience with large-scale image acquisition and basic image processing.
*Proficiency with computer programming in languages such as Python.
*Strong problem-solving skills with a keen eye for technical details.
*Excellent collaboration and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

*Electron microscopy
*Light microscopy
*Histology
*Neuroanatomy

For more information, see these publications.  
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.11.037
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-019-0641-2
https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.27.546656
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.28.454025

This full-time position has an initial appointment of one year and possibility of renewal based on satisfactory performance. 
Interested applicants, please apply at https://puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/position/33501 and include a CV, cover letter or statement of research interests. Also include the names and contact information for at least 2 references. The work location for this position is in-person on campus at Princeton University. This position is subject to Princeton University's background check policy.