Durham, NC, US, 27710

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Our lab at Duke Neurobiology is seeking to recruit a postdoctoral fellow to lead a project that aims to determine the genetic and circuit basis of simple value-based decision making. Specifically, the funded project will aim to exploit the significant variation in the decision outcomes we observed among different wild-caught Drosophila strains to identify the specific genes – and by extension the circuitry that they participate in – whose variations in function and/or expression underlie the observed behavioral variation.

Drosophila females are capable of making value-based decisions: they have the capacity to memorize and rank the values of different acceptable options before committing to a decision. Furthermore, Drosophila offer an EM-level connectome and extensive genetic access to their relatively simple and likely easier to understand brain, making them an excellent model for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making. For more information, see some of our published work in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1151842), Cell Reports (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2014.09.033), Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.076), eLife (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.46165), and PNAS (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1911583116). 

Our lab is well funded, collaborative, and located in an intellectually vibrant neurobiology research community.

Education And Experience

• The ideal candidate is someone who has (or is about to have) a Ph.D. in Neuroscience or related field, possesses strong problem-solving and quantitative skills, and is curiosity driven.
• Competence in molecular and genomic approaches, strong motivation to learn new techniques, and ability to code are a must.
• Working knowledge in e-phys, Ca2+ imaging, and optics is highly desirable. 

In addition to applying to the position online interested candidates should send a cover letter, CV, and contacts for three references to yang@neuro.duke.edu.

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