Job description and selection criteria
Job title / Postdoctoral Research AssociateDivision / Medical Sciences
Department / Experimental Psychology
Location / Tinbergen Building, 9 South Parks Road, OX1 3UD
Grade and salary / Grade 7: £30,738 - £37,768 per annum
Hours / Full time (37.5 hours per week)
Contract type / Fixed-term for 2 years
Reporting to / Prof David Bannerman, Dr Stephen McHugh (Oxford) and Dr Gary Gilmour (Lilly UK)
Vacancy reference / 121365
Additional information / Funded by Lilly UK
Committed to equality and advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) /
The University of Oxford is a member of the Athena SWAN Charter and holds an institutional Bronze Athena SWAN award.
The Department of Experimental Psychology holds a Silver departmental Athena SWAN award in recognition of its efforts to introduce organisational and cultural practices that promote gender equality in SET and create a better working environment for both men and women.
Introduction
The University
The University of Oxford is a complex and stimulating organisation, which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence in research and teaching. It employs over 11,000 staff and has a student population of over 22,000.
Our annual income in 2013/14 was £1,174.4m. Oxford is one of Europe's most innovative and entrepreneurial universities: income from external research contracts exceeds £478.3m p.a., and more than 80 spin-off companies have been created.
Oxford is a collegiate university, consisting of the central University and colleges. The central University is composed of academic departments and research centres, administrative departments, libraries and museums. There is a highly devolved operational structure, which is split across four academic divisions, Academic Services and University Collections and University Administrative Services. For further information, please see:
www.ox.ac.uk/staff/about_the_university/new_to_the_university/structure_of_university
For more information please visit www.ox.ac.uk/about
Medical Sciences Division
The Medical Sciences Division is an internationally recognized centre of excellence for biomedical and clinical research and teaching. We are the largest academic division in the University of Oxford.
World-leading programmes, housed in state-of-the-art facilities, cover the full range of scientific endeavour from the molecule to the population. With our NHS partners we also foster the highest possible standards in patient care.
For more information please visit: www.medsci.ox.ac.uk
Department of Experimental Psychology
Experimental Psychology at Oxford is widely regarded as the leading psychology department in the UK, and a major international centre for research in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, with over 120 postgraduate and postdoctoral research and academic staff. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) Exercise the Psychology, Neuroscience and Psychiatry REF submission from Oxford was ranked as first in the UK. Departmental turnover for 14/15 was in excess of £14.5 million.
Research in the Department is organised into 4 research groupings roughly equal in size: Behavioural Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology & Psychological Disorders. The Department has consistently received the highest possible ratings in the British Funding Councils’ Research Assessment Exercise recognising research of leading, international standing.
The Department has a state-of-the-art Developmental Science research centre, created in 2010 and facilities for EEG, TMS, and tDCS, along with multiple laboratories with eye movement recording equipment. In 2011 and 2012 two new clinical research centres were created – the Oxford Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma (OXCADAT) and the Oxford Cognitive Neuropsychology Centre (CNC) – which provide facilities for the treatment, as well as the assessment, of patients within Experimental Psychology. The new centres form part of a new NIHR Clinical Research Facility in Oxford Cognitive Health.
The Department has close links with Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences and we make heavy use of the FMRIB brain imaging centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital (3 and 7T MRI) and the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA) at the Warneford Hospital (MEG). A new Biomedical Services Building (BSB) also provides state-of-the-art facilities for animal research.
There are excellent links to a wide variety of special populations including a panel of older participants (ageing research), mothers and babies (BabyLab), schools (developmental research), acquired and developmental neuropsychological patients, patients with psychological problems. There is an exceptionally rich intellectual environment offering many opportunities for interaction within and outside the Department itself.
At the undergraduate level, the Department is the focus for lectures, classes, practical’s and project work. It is a centre used by the undergraduates from all colleges for the Experimental Psychology (EP), Psychology and Philosophy (PP), Psychology and Linguistics (PL) and Biomedical Science (BMS) courses. The Department provides lecture rooms, IT facilities and laboratories for experimental and project work.
For more information please visit: http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/
The Bannerman Laboratory
We are interested in the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie learning and memory, attention and emotion, and their application to animal models of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. We are especially interested in the contribution of different glutamate receptors and glutamate receptor subtypes to cognition, in brain regions like the hippocampus. To study brain function, we have routinely used genetically modified rodents, pharmacological interventions and brain lesions, combined with in-depth behavioural analysis. Increasingly, we are also using recording approaches such as tissue oxygen voltammetry (a haemodynamic measure of neuronal activity analogous to the BOLD signal in fMRI) and in vivo electrophysiology to monitor neural activity in behaving animals. We are also developing new approaches like optogenetics and pharmacogenetics within the Behavioural Neuroscience Unit to manipulate specific cell types in specific brain regions of behaving animals.
Job description
Research topic / Investigating a novel rat model of autism/schizophrenia using tissue oxygen voltammetryPrincipal Investigator / supervisor / Professor David Bannerman and Dr Stephen McHugh (Oxford) with Dr Gary Gilmour (Lilly UK)
Project team / Bannerman Lab / Behavioural Neuroscience Group
Funding partner / Lilly UK
Recent publications / 1. Bannerman DM, Sprengel R, Sanderson DJ, McHugh SB, Rawlins JNP, Monyer H, Seeburg PH (2014) Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, spatial memory and anxiety. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15; 181-192.
Barkus C, Sanderson DJ, Rawlins JNP, Walton ME, Harrison PJ, Bannerman DM (2014) What causes aberrant salience in schizophrenia? A role for impaired short-term habituation and the GRIA1 (GluA1) AMPA receptor subunit. Molecular Psychiatry, 19; 1060-1070.
McHugh SB, Barkus C, Huber A, Capitao L, Lima J, Lowry JP, Bannerman DM (2014) Aversive prediction error signals in the amygdala. Journal of Neuroscience, 34; 9024-9033.
Barkus C, Line SJ, Huber A, Capitao L, Lima J, Jennings K, Lowry J, Sharp T, Bannerman DM, McHugh SB (2013) Variation in serotonin transporter expression modulates fear-evoked hemodynamic responses and theta-frequency neuronal oscillations in the amygdala. Biological Psychiatry, 75; 901-908.
2.
3. McHugh SB, Marques-Smith A, Li J, Rawlins JNP, Lowry J, Conway M, Tricklebank M, Gilmour G, Bannerman DM (2012). Haemodynamic responses in amygdala and hippocampus distinguish between aversive and neutral cues during Pavlovian fear conditioning in behaving rats. European Journal of Neuroscience, 37; 498-507.
Bannerman DM, Bus T, Taylor AM, Sanderson DJ, Schwarz I, Jensen V, Hvalby Ø, Rawlins JNP, Sprengel R, Seeburg PH (2012). Dissecting spatial knowledge from spatial choice by hippocampal NMDA receptor deletion. Nature Neuroscience, 15; 1153-1159.
Esclassan F, Francois J, Phillips KG, Loomis S, Gilmour G. Phenotypic characterization of non-social behavioural impairment in neurexin 1α knockout rats. Behavioral Neuroscience 2014, 129(1): 74-85
Technical skills / Behavioural testing of rodents; stereotaxic surgery; electrophysiological/voltammetric recordings in behaving animals; statistics; experimental design and computing
Overview of the role
We are looking for a highly motivated post-doctoral research associate to take forwards a novel project, funded through collaboration with Lilly UK, to investigate a novel genetically modified rat model of autism/schizophrenia, using both behavioural analysis and a novel voltammetric approach to measure neural activity in behaving animals. This post is fixed term for 2 years with a start date of January, 2016 (or as soon as possible thereafter).
The overall aim of the project is to develop and validate translational approaches to advance novel therapies to treat autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). To this end, the following programme of work will utilize the neurexin 1 alpha (NRXN1a) knock-out rat, an emerging animal model of ASD. The project will begin with full-scale behavioural phenotyping of wild-type (WT), heterozygote (HET) and knock-out (KO) NRXN1a rats. A recent study has shown that KO rats are impaired in a range of behavioural assays. These deficits were more pronounced in male than female KOs, consistent with the higher incidence of ASD in males than females. We will further characterise the behaviour of these animals and, in addition, we will record tissue oxygen signals (a haemodynamic measure of neural activity analogous to BOLD signals in fMRI) using a novel voltammetric approach, and LFPs from multiple brain regions) as WT and NRXN1a KO rats learn and perform appropriate behavioural tasks. If successful, this will create an important translational bio-behavioural model compatible with the human imaging paradigms.
The studies will be performed in the Behavioural Neuroscience Unit in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, though there will also be the possibility to interact with the group at Lilly UK (Erl Wood) who have conducted preliminary behavioural testing in these animals.
Responsibilities/duties
Research
· Contributing to the design of experiments
· Stereotactic surgery in rodents
· Running behavioural experiments involving rodents
· Electrode construction and testing
· Voltammetric recordings in behaving animals
· Processing and analysing data
· Histological confirmation of targeting
· Upholding the ethical and research-excellence standards of the laboratory
Communication
· Participating in and contributing to journal clubs, discussion groups etc.
· Preparing posters and oral presentations of research for dissemination at national and international meetings
· Preparing scientific manuscripts based on research for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
· Communicating with the departmental staff and suppliers to ensure laboratory consumables are ordered in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Selection criteria
Essential
· A good first degree and PhD / DPhil (either already awarded or soon to be attained) in a relevant discipline (psychology, neuroscience, physiology, pharmacology).
· A keen interest and familiarity with research literature in the neuroscience/psychology of learning and memory, attention and emotion.
· Practical experience with behavioural testing of animals.
· Physical ability to work with rodents.
· Experience with stereotactic surgery, pharmacological manipulations, and perfusion/histological procedures.
· Experience with in vivo electrochemical and/or electrophysiological recordings
· Excellent organisational and record keeping skills.
· Ability to work independently
· Excellent communication and English language skills.
· Flexibility to allow for at least some weekend work.
Desirable
· Demonstrable computational skills (including familiarity with Matlab) and expertise in signals analysis and statistics
· Track record of research publications or experience preparing research manuscripts for publication.
· Previous experience with tissue oxygen voltammetry
· Understanding of animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders
The University’s policy on retirement
The University operates an employer justified retirement age for all academic and related posts (any grade above grade 5), for which the retirement date is the 30 September immediately preceding the 68th birthday.
The justification for this is explained at:
www.admin.ox.ac.uk/personnel/end/retirement/revisedejra/revaim/
For existing employees any employment beyond the retirement age is subject to approval through the procedures outlined at:
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/personnel/end/retirement/revisedejra/revproc/
Pre-employment screening
Please note that the appointment of the successful candidate will be subject to standard pre-employment screening, as applicable to the post. This will include right-to-work, proof of identity and references. All applicants must read the candidate notes on the University’s pre-employment screening procedures, found at:
www.ox.ac.uk/about/jobs/preemploymentscreening/.
Furthermore, additional pre-employment screening is required for this post, as such; the successful candidate will be required to undergo University security screening.
Working at the University of Oxford
For further information about working at Oxford, please see:
www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/jobs/research/
How to apply
If you consider that you meet the selection criteria, click on the Apply Now button on the ‘Job Details’ page and follow the on-screen instructions to register as a user. You will then be required to complete a number of screens with your application details, relating to your skills and experience. When prompted, please provide details of two referees and indicate whether we can contact them at this stage. You will also be required to upload a CV and supporting statement which explains how you meet the selection criteria for the post. The supporting statement should explain your relevant experience which may have been gained in employment, education, or you may have taken time away from these activities in order to raise a family, care for a dependant, or travel for example.
Your application will be judged solely on the basis of how you demonstrate that that you meet the selection criteria outlined above and we are happy to consider evidence of transferable skills or experience which you may have gained outside the context of paid employment or education.
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All applications must be received by midday on the closing date stated in the online advertisement.
Information for priority candidates
A priority candidate is a University employee who is seeking redeployment owing to the fact that he or she has been advised that they are at risk of redundancy, or on grounds of ill-health/disability. Priority candidates are issued with a redeployment letter by their employing departments.
If you are a priority candidate, please ensure that you:
- attach your redeployment letter to your application
- explain in your covering letter how you meet the selection criteria for the post.
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