United States
Drs Simon Little and Philip Starr (https://starrlab.ucsf.edu/) are seeking a talented postdoctoral student to study the neurophysiology of sleep in Parkinson's disease and the relationship to movement, mood and motivation using chronically implanted, sensing-enabled, deep brain stimulator pacemakers.
Drs Little and Starr have pioneered adaptive deep brain stimulation and chronic neural sensing for movement disorders and are now working at the forefront of studies to develop personalized stimulation therapies for patients. This includes research to understand the link between cortico-basal network physiology and symptoms, physiological biomarker discovery and testing of closed-loop stimulation strategies for neurological patients.
They present here an exciting opportunity to work with next generation technology that can continously record and stream intracranial cortical and basal ganglia physiology remotely from patients, in their homes, over multiple nights. This will enable longitudinal, remote, high spatio-temporal recordings from patients in the naturalistic environment to investigate the relationship of sleep neurophysiology to symptoms. The aim is to dissect the neurophysiology of sleep in Parkinson's disease and then develop personalized adaptive stimulation strategies to impact disturbed sleep physiology. Therefore this project stands at the exciting border of basic and translational neuroscience and has the potential to uncover fundamental understanding regarding sleep and neurophysiology as well as advance a new closed-loop neurostimulation therapy for patients. This project is a collaborative effort between UCSF, Oxford University and Mayo Clinic and is funded by DARPA. It is an excellent opportunity for those interested in BCI work, translational neuroscience and neuroengineering.
Required:
PhD in Neuroscience, Neuro - engineering or related disciplines.
Advanced analytical and problem solving skills
Excellent, leadership, project management and communication skills
Ability to independently run experiments, analyze data and plan forward strategy combined with excellent team and collaborative working skills
Highly self-motivated, inquisitive scientist
Record of publication in peer-reviewed journals
Preferred:
Experience in neurophysiological analysis and strong analysis skills (Matlab / Python) would be beneficial
How to Apply:
Apply by sending the following to Simon Little ([email protected])
- Current CV
- Cover letter describing interst and relevant experience for the project.
- Three potential reference contacts
We look forward to hearing from you.
Position is available to start March 2021