Research Scientist, All-Optical Working Memory
Job Location:
Alameda, CA - USA
Yearly Salary:
Posted:
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
Company Overview
Astera Neuro is a philanthropically funded research organization within the Astera Institute working to decipher and ultimately write the neural codes underlying perception thought behavior and internal state. The tools this requires do not yet exist so we are assembling a founding team of experimental neuroscientists computational scientists and engineers to build them from recording and interface hardware to software and computational methods and to use them to study neural activity at unprecedented scale with direct promise for treating neurological and psychiatric disease. We pursue high-risk high-reward science in a collaborative well-resourced environment with competitive compensation and share our tools data and discoveries openly under Asteras Open Science Policy
Position Summary
Were hiring a PhD-level scientist to join Astera Neuros rodent neuroscience team. Your initial assignment is to read write and perturb the content of working memory in mouse cortex at single-cell resolution.
The ideal candidate is an experimentalist who can carry the work end-to-end. You can design a working-memory task in the morning run a closed-loop holographic write-in on the rig in the afternoon and write the population-analysis pipeline that evening. You want institutional support and the freedom to move fast on a problem that matters.
What Youll Do
Design and iterate a head-fixed mouse working-memory task and get animals performing it reliably.
Run two-photon holographic photostimulation experiments: read population activity during the task then write in and perturb the held representation at single-cell resolution.
Run holographic targeting power calibration and closed-loop stimulation on the all-optical rig working with our optics engineering team.
Lead computational analysis of large-scale neural population data including dimensionality reduction population decoding GLMs and circuit-level inference.
Set the viral and transgenic expression strategy including soma-targeted ChRmine and GCaMP.
Perform mouse survival surgery: stereotaxic viral injection chronic cranial-window implantation and headbar installation.
Mentor research associates and technicians and at the senior or principal level more junior scientists; contribute to hiring onboarding and lab culture.
Contribute to publications talks open data and tooling releases and engagement with the broader scientific community.
Who You Are
Required:
Hands-on mouse survival surgery experience: chronic cranial windows headbars and stereotaxic injections.
PhD in neuroscience bioengineering physics or a related field. Equivalent demonstrated expertise will also be considered.
Hands-on experience with in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and/or holographic (SLM-based) optogenetics in rodents.
Practical experience with two-photon systems: optical alignment system characterization and in vivo use.
Proficiency in scientific computing for neural-data analysis; Python and/or MATLAB with Suite2p CaImAn or comparable pipelines.
Preferred/Nice to Have:
Experience with head-fixed rodent behavior and task design; closed-loop and real-time experiments.
Prior systems neuroscience research in cortex working memory decision-making or motor/premotor circuits.
Experience with ultrafast pulsed lasers (Ti:Sapphire fiber) and nonlinear optics.
Two-photon optogenetics (SLM-based holography temporal focusing or spiral-scanning photostimulation); soma-targeted opsins such as ChRmine.
What We Value
Conviction that the brains internal model can be understood in full and that getting there requires a kind of science no single academic lab can do; were betting on scale deep collaboration across science and engineering and open sharing of ideas in a full-stack environment.
Willingness to be held to an engineering standard. Our decisive tests are write-in experiments: constructing a specific percept thought or internal state not merely decoding one. What we cannot build we do not understand.
Comfort building on shared infrastructure rather than private projects; rigs surgical preparations and analysis pipelines are standardized so they can be shared and datasets are designed to stitch across sessions and animals.
Care for the animals: healthy well-handled mice supported by dedicated veterinary oversight are the foundation of both the science and its credibility.
Commitment to open science; we release tools data and methods and aim to create a new dynamic of rapid open exchange in neuroscience.
Education
PhD with 0-4 years of experience in neuroscience bioengineering physics or a related field or equivalent research experience. We value demonstrated skill and relevant experience above credentials.
Compensation
Total compensation is competitive and commensurate with the level of experience and qualifications.
Why Join Us
Research Scientist at Astera Neuro running an all-optical program to read write and perturb the content of working memory in mouse cortex at single-cell resolution. You will design the behavioral task perform the surgeries it depends on and run the two-photon holographic optogenetics that causally manipulates a held memory. This work sits within Astera Neuros larger effort to answer the hardest and least understood questions in neuroscience: how the brain generates thoughts intelligence and consciousness.
Required Experience:
IC
