Two Research Assistant posts are available in our 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 from a very successful 2016-20 project which focused on learning and memory, and innate olfactory/thermo-hygro-sensory circuits (see our Publications page).
Applicants will work with electron microscopy image data, annotate and proofread automatically segmented reconstructions of neurons and their connectivity, develop open source tools for data analysis, and perform neuron and circuit analyses to obtain biological insight. 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.
Essential Prerequisites
- Relevant Masters or 2 or more years of practical experience in neuroscience, computer science, physical sciences
- Basic understanding of neuroscience
- Strong desire to understand circuit basis of brain function and behaviour;
- Some experience with computer programming/scripting/data analysis (e.g. R, Python, Matlab, unix shell)
- Experience in analysing and writing scientific results
- Good communication skills (written and oral)
- Ability to work in a team
- Attention to detail
Desirable – Expertise in Drosophila neuroanatomy – Background in computational neuroanatomy – Proven ability to work with very large datasets – Ability to reason about computational bottlenecks – Proven ability to develop R or python packages or parse and write C++ code – Experience sharing code and data post-publication, following standard open research practices – Expertise in EM reconstruction software or EM of neural circuits
Please see our formal ad here for more details about these positions and the application process.