The Postdoctoral Fellow will perform independent and/or directed research activities to fulfill the aims of the laboratory?s NIH-funded grant under the direction of the laboratory Principle Investigator (PI), Dr. Ben Richardson in the Department of Pharmacology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, IL. Broadly, this laboratory addresses issues in understanding neural circuits and their role in disease using a multi-level state-of-the-art approach. The primary activities of the Fellow will be to perform whole cell electrophysiology, in vivo electrophysiology, rodent behavioral assays, viral injections in rodents, microscopy, and training of students and laboratory staff.

The main role of the Fellow is to design and execute studies aimed at understanding the neurological basis if neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder. Specifically, these studies will determine how deletion of Autism-linked genes disrupts the development and mature circuit function of the cerebellar cortex. To address functional cellular level changes in developing and adult mutant mice, classic electrophysiology approaches in brain slices from wildtype and mutant will be combined with ligand photo-uncaging, optogenetics and pharmacology. In parallel, a transgenic approach will be used to determine how cellular level changes may lead to disrupted motor and non-motor behaviors. Rodent behavior in a battery of sensory, motor, anxiety, memory, and social behaviors will be evaluated with the potential to pharmacologically or chemogenetically modulate cerebellar influence on behavioral performance. In line with other projects in the lab, the Fellow may also lead efforts to identify the underlying cerebellar-relevant nodes of the circuit involved in these disrupted behaviors observed in mutant mice. Finally, the fellow may contribute to in vivo recording studies in wildtype and mutant mice to determine how cellular and synaptic level changes affect activity of the cerebellar circuit in vivo.

The position is one year in duration and will be renewed annually based on Fellow performance and funding availability.

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