Three Research Associate and two Research Assistant posts are available in the Drosophila Connectomics Group directed by Greg Jefferis and Matthias Landgraf in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Positions are funded by a new £4.1M Wellcome international collaborative award with HHMI Janelia Research Campus in the US (FlyEM, Gerry Rubin, and Gwyneth Card), the MRC LMB in Cambridge (Greg Jefferis) and the University of Oxford Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (Scott Waddell). This project will produce the first synaptic-resolution connectome for a whole male adult Drosophila central nervous system, offering exciting opportunities for comparison with pre-existing female brain data. This resource will be rapidly shared with the more than 200 labs worldwide as well with computational and systems neuroscientists. This project follows a very successful 2016-20 project, which focused on learning and memory and innate olfactory and thermo/hygrosensory circuits (see here for associated publications).
Applicants will work with electron-microscopy image data, annotate and proof-read automatically segmented reconstructions of neurons and their connectivity, develop opensource tools for data analysis and perform neuron and circuit analyses to obtain biological insight.
Candidates will join a team in Zoology with 10 team members and will interact closely with a similar team in the US and experimental groups in Oxford (Scott Waddell) and Cambridge (Greg Jefferis). They will need to be highly motivated and develop a good understanding of the nature of the data and the scientific aims of the project. Close teamwork will be essential, but team members will have increasing opportunities for scientific independence as their expertise develops.
Please follow these links to the official job adverts for Research Associates and Research Assistants!