Postdoctoral

Description

The Psychosocial Neuroimmune Addiction Laboratory directed by Keren Bachi, PhD, LCSW, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship position in clinical research neuroimaging. Our research program centers on the investigation of human neurobiological underpinnings of psychosocial factors in substance use disorders and related conditions aimed to glean insights for novel prevention, early intervention, and personalized treatments. We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Fellow, who will primarily assist conduct of our NIH-funded research projects which utilize innovative neuroimaging, immunological, and clinical trial methodologies. Multidisciplinary mentored training opportunities are individually tailored to achieve specific goals considering the fellows’ prior background and interests.

Located in the greater New York metropolitan area within the Icahn School of Medicine and the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai, internationally acclaimed for excellence in scientific research, clinical care, and education. We offer an outstanding intellectual and multidisciplinary research environment with a commitment to translational research. State-of-the-art infrastructure and support are available.

Responsibilities

The Postdoctoral Fellow helps with the conduct of NIH-and Pharmaceutical company-funded research in individuals with Substance Use Disorders and related conditions or at risk for Substance Use Disorders, and healthy volunteers. Research methods involve physiological and behavioral clinical endpoints, brain imaging using non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Strong clinical experience in any of the following areas is essential, including experience with psychiatric populations, neuroimaging and computational neuroscience knowledge, and hands-on experience in analyzing functional neuroimaging. Strong knowledge is needed in MATLAB, Python, Unix/Bash, R, LATEX, LabVIEW, Coding for high performance computing clusters. The Fellow is involved in independently conducting statistical and neuroimaging data analyses.

The Fellow is responsible for conducting neuroimaging studies in particular with fMRI and MRS. These duties include designing and executing MRS, fMRI study Programming, and MRS/fMRI processing pipelines. The Fellow is responsible for performing statistical analyses of behavioral data and functional neuroimaging (fMRI, MRS) data. The Fellow assists supervising Students, Research Assistants and Clinical Research Coordinators in these research efforts. Other duties include preparing manuscripts, assisting the PI in progress reports and grant applications as well as presenting findings at national conferences and local seminars/meetings.

Qualifications

Candidates must have a PhD degree and/or an MD in psychiatry, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, clinical or social psychology, behavioral economics, computational neuroscience or a related discipline.

Experience Required:

Hands-on experience analyzing functional neuroimaging is essential. The candidate will independently conduct statistical and neuroimaging data analyses.

Candidates should preferably have computational neuroscience knowledge and clinical trials experience. They should also be able to perform clinical evaluations and behavioral assessments under the directorship of the Study Clinician.

Goals/Outcomes of the Research Project:

Improve understanding, prevention, and treatment of substance use disorders and related conditions vial clinical research studies.