Key responsibilities
:
• To assist with research by planning, conducting and recording the outcome of experiments.
• To perform tasks guided by your supervisor including wet laboratory work, purchasing and organising chemicals, ordering of specified equipment, computational tasks and data analysis.
• To present information on research progress and outcomes as appropriate.
• To conduct literature and database searches.
• To contribute to the production of research reports and publications.
• To ensure and maintain an efficient and tidy Laboratory.
To plan and manage your experimental work within the project along with your supervisor and other members of the project team.
To contribute to the overall preparation of research for publication.
To ensure the research is carried in accordance with good practice and in compliance with local polices and legal requirements.
To contribute to the smooth running of the research group, including the effective use of resources, training of others and taking responsibility for use of communal facilities.
Working relationships:
You will report to Dr Albert Cardona and will interact and collaborate with other Postdoctoral Scientists, Research Support Staff and Students, not only in your Group, but also across the LMB and with external Groups as necessary.
Additional information:
The above lists are not exhaustive, and you are required to undertake such duties as may reasonably be requested within the scope of the post. All employees are required to act professionally, co-operatively and flexibly in line with the requirements of the post and the MRC.
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Education / qualifications / training required:
Essential:
Master’s degree in biology, medicine, or an equivalent subject that includes knowledge of cell biology, neuroscience and neuroanatomy.
Desirable:
Relevant skills and experience of working in a laboratory role, particularly in nanometre-resolution neuroanatomy labelling and reconstruction tools using software tools such as Fiji, CATMAID and FlyWire.
A PhD in a relevant subject or due to complete within 6 months.
Previous work experience required:
Essential:
Independent dry lab work including tracing neurons by hand in CATMAID software, annotating synapses by hand in CATMAID software, and proofreading neurons with FlyWire software.
Experience and theoretical knowledge of larval fruit fly neuroanatomy at nanometre scale as imaged with electron microscopy.
Experience in crafting and executing python scripts for retrieving data from online databases, analysing the neuroanatomy of neurons as defined by spatial coordinates (the arbours) and graph relationships (synapses), and pushing annotations back to the databases using the CATMAID API.
Experience in generating and curating ground truth data for training machine learning classifiers to segment neurons and detect synapses.
Desirable:
Experience in working in a laboratory environment, mentoring fellow research scientists, reviewing their work in segmenting and labelling neurons and synapses, and communicating with computer scientists across the discipline divide for effective delivery of high-performance machine learning approaches to neuron segmentation, synapse annotation, and proofreading.
Knowledge and experience:
Creativity and initiative
Essential:
Ability to plan and carry out experiments, collate and analyse data, using python scripts that use the Navis/Pymaid framework for accessing CATMAID databases.
Understanding of lab health and safety.
Previous experience working with and training students.
Desirable:
Practical experience of running and maintaining scientific equipment.
Independent working
Essential:
Proven skills in working independently and as part of a team with minimal supervision; good judgment in assessing when to ask for support.
Can independently advance existing techniques and implement new methods for connectomics.
Working with others
Essential:
Ability to work and communicate effectively with colleagues as part of a team.
Ability to train and supervise team members
Verbal and written communication skills
Essential:
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Experience of giving presentations.
Desirable:
Has made contributions to scientific papers.
Personal skills / behaviours / qualities:
Reliability and enthusiasm.
Strong organisational skills. Methodical and thorough.
Passion for science and a desire to continue to develop skills and knowledge.
Proactive in seeking solutions to problems and keen to take responsibility.
Ability to work as part of a team.
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