Role Description

This is a full-time on-site role for a Research Technician at IDIBAPS in Barcelona, including managerial responsibilities, lab organization, and participation in ongoing multidisciplinary projects. The Research Technician will be responsible for conducting laboratory work that includes animal care and behavior, brain surgeries, and tissue processing.

Desired Qualifications (it's ok to miss some)

• Experience in rodent care and training
• Previous training in neuroscience with related degree(s)
• Laboratory skills including tissue culture
• Strong background in brain surgeries, tissue preparation, and microscopy techniques
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment
• Attention to detail and accuracy in experimental work

Lab Description

We are interested in understanding the brain circuits that mediate learned behaviors in mice. Our main approaches and goals are:

• Use of behavioral paradigms based on audition and smell, and mathematical modelling to explain the learning and behavior of the animals.
• Trans-synaptic viral approaches to reconstruct long-range circuits between the telencephalon and the midbrain.
• Transcriptomic approaches to characterize the cell types in different brain areas.
• Electrophysiology and optogenetics to probe the activity and function of specific neurons.
• We aim to integrate and combine the above tools to achieve a description of circuits that incorporates the identity of neurons, their connectivity, how their activity gives rises to specific behaviors, and how this changes during learning.
• Our interest extends beyond the mouse, and one of our goals is to compare our findings across species. With distant animals to understand the evolution of these circuits, and with humans to understand how these circuits are affected in distinct neuropathologies.

Company Description

The August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) is a R&D Consortium based in Barcelona linked to the Clínic Hospital of Barcelona. The institute combines clinical research with high-level basic research to advance scientific knowledge in healthcare. IDIBAPS conducts research in areas such as Biological aggression, Respiratory, cardiovascular and renal pathobiology, Liver, digestive system and metabolism, Clinical and experimental neuroscience, and Oncology and haematology. With over 500 competitive projects, IDIBAPS is a leading biomedical research institute in Spain.