Postdoctoral researcher in psychedelic therapies for depression

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

We are seeking 1-2 postdoctoral fellows who will work on an exciting collaborative initiative aimed at investigating the behavioral language, physiological correlates, and molecular mechanisms responsible for the rapid-acting and long-term effects of various psychedelic compounds. The project is part of a recently awarded Karolinska Institutet Research Incubator (KIRI) project and applications are now invited for a co-supervised postdoctoral position in the Lopez (Department of Neuroscience, NEURO) and Lundberg (Department of Clinical Neuroscience, CNS) laboratories at Karolinska Institutet, Solna campus.

The postdoctoral researcher will be part of a joint collaboration between the Neurobiology of Stress and Treatment Response Research Group at NEURO led by Assistant Professor Juan Pablo Lopez and the Molecular Brain Imaging, Neuropsychopharmacology, Depression and Anxiety Disorders Research Group at CNS led by Adjunct Professor Johan Lundberg. Dr. Lopez leads a pre-clinical research program that studies the molecular mechanisms, cellular circuits, and behavioral correlates, associated with stress-related psychiatric disorders and their treatments, using animal models. The Lopez laboratory has significant expertise in a wide range of techniques, such as bulk and single-cell transcriptomics, viral-mediated gene manipulations, mouse models of stress/anxiety, using males and females, and automated behavioral tracking systems. Dr. Lundberg leads a clinical research program that aims to understand the pathophysiology and pharmacology of mood and anxiety disorders with the overarching goal to develop relevant biological markers for antidepressant treatment response. To this end, the Lundberg laboratory studies in vivo the molecular effects of different antidepressant treatments in humans. Dr. Lundberg has significant experience with various in vivo imaging techniques, such as PET, MEG and fMRI. Both supervisors are Core Members of the ECNP: Psychedelic research task working group, which will provide the postdoc with access to collaborations with internationally recognized European researchers and centers with a track-record within psychedelic research (both preclinical and clinical).

Your mission

We are looking for an outstanding and highly motivated postdoctoral researcher who is interested in studying the molecular mechanisms responsible for the antidepressant effects of psychedelic compounds. This individual should be passionately committed to furthering knowledge of psychiatric neurobiology with the ultimate aim of improving the treatments for stress-related mental health disorders. The successful applicant will perform experiments using clinical and imaging data collected from PSIPET and CAPSI, two clinical trials of the effects of psilocybin on depressive symptoms in humans. These two studies are the first of its kind in Sweden. Using a top-down approach, the candidate will further explore results from PSIPET and CAPSI in mice to identify and characterize the genes and cell types responsible for the antidepressant effects of psilocybin treatment. This will be accomplished using a combination of viral activity-dependent labelling techniques, cell-type specific methods (e.g., single cell RNA-sequencing), novel and automated behavioral tracking systems, as well as state-of-the-art wireless devices to monitor physiological processes and behavioral states. You are expected to play a leading role in experimental design, execution of experiments, analysis of data, writing research findings, as well as presentation and publication of results. You will work with collaborating laboratories to learn and adapt new techniques. You will also have a chance to collaborate with the scientists who are pioneers in their fields.

Your profile

To be eligible for employment as a postdoctor a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed to be equivalent to a Swedish doctoral degree is required. This eligibility requirement must be fulfilled at the latest at the time of the employment decision. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier.

The candidate must be an experienced researcher with documented doctoral or postdoctoral experience and expertise in a neuroscience-related field (clinical, biological, or computational).
Proficiency in programming, bioinformatics, and knowledge of MATLAB, R, or Python is required. Candidates with knowledge or experience with machine learning methods will be prioritized.
Suitable candidates should have significant experience in molecular biology and possess good knowledge of animal models of stress and anxiety with FELASA-certified knowledge and skills.
Previous hands-on experience with the analysis of automatic behavioral tracking or pose estimation tools (e.g., DeepLabCut, or SLEAP), is a plus.
Applicants should be highly collegial and experienced in working eﬀectively in “team science” contexts. Successful postdocs are expected to possess exceptional organizational skills.
Above all, the applicant needs to have a high degree of independence and motivation but should have no problems to work in a team given the collaborative nature of the project.
Excellent oral and written communication skills are required, along with experience with scientific writing. The professional communication language for this position will be English.

What do we offer?

A creative and inspiring environment with wide-ranging expertise and interests. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct successful medical research and hold the largest range of medical education in Sweden. At KI, you get to meet researchers working with a wide range of specialisms and methods, giving you ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience with the various scientific fields within medicine and health. It is the crossover collaborations, which have pushed KI to where it is today, at the forefront of global research. Several of the people you meet in healthcare are educated at KI. A close relationship with the health care providers is important for creating groundbreaking top quality education and research. Karolinska Institutet is also a state university, which entitles you to several benefits through our collective agreement.

Location: Solna

More information about the Lopez Laboratory can be found here:
https://ki.se/en/neuro/lopez-laboratory-neurobiology-of-stress-and-treatment-response

More information about the Lundberg Laboratory can be found here: https://ki.se/en/research/research-areas-centres-and-networks/research-groups/molecular-brain-imaging-neuropsychopharmacology-depression-and-anxiety-disorders-johan-lundbergs-research-group#tab-start

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
A complete list of publications
A summary of current work (no more than one page)

Welcome to apply at the latest 2024-09-06.

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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