Research Principal

This position is in the laboratory of Daniel Wonjae Chung, MD, PhD, which is part of the Translational Neuroscience Program in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. The lab’s team conducts postmortem and computational research to increase our understanding of the synaptic disruptions that lead to working memory deficits in schizophrenia.

This position is grant funded.Responsibilities:

• Mentor, train, and assist with supervising junior research staff.

• Provide advanced level research support for the research study.

• Performs in accordance with system-wide competencies/behaviors.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

• Conduct Execute postmortem studies, including expansion microscopy, nanoscale imaging and post-image processing.

• Oversee lab organization, assist with recruitment and staff supervision, and help to plan, coordinate and supervise research projects and lab experiments/procedures.

• Collect and analyze data.

• Provides operational oversight of the basic science research and instrumentation.

• Masters degree required preferably in psychology, neuroscience, counseling, sociology, or related research field.

• Minimum of two years of work experience in a research project and/or related clinical setting is required.

• Familiarity with computers and common software packages required.

• Working knowledge of research methodology required.

• Prior supervisory experience preferred.

• A PhD-level credentialed individual with hands-on experience in immunofluorescence staining of brain tissue sections and quantitative confocal and/or super-resolution microscopy.

• Able to write and troubleshoot their own code in Python or MATLAB for quantitative post-image processing and analysis.

• A record of first-authored publications demonstrating the ability to carry a project from data collection through analysis to publication.

• Familiarity with computational modeling of neural circuits is an advantage.

Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:

• Act 34

UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran