The Dreosti lab is looking for a very enthusiastic and highly motivated PhD student. The student does not need to have a lot of experience in the techniques of this PhD project, however, he/she must be eager to learn and have shown competence learning new skills throughout his/her whole academic career.
The PhD project offers a unique opportunity to learn a vast range of techniques including molecular biology, optics, genetics, programming and even machine learning and AI.
The project aims to identify how the social circuits of the brain develop over time, how they generate innate social drives, and how they are modulated by experience.
Our lab has recently discovered the brain network that underlies social behaviour in juvenile fish, and how it is affected by social isolation (paper link). Using a number of techniques, including two-photon imaging, the student will look at this circuit functioning in real-time, while fish are engaged in social interaction.
The student will be given exceptional resources and support but he/she will be expected to work independently and learn new skills while carrying out a state-of-the-art project. He/she will be joining a young, small lab in one of the most prestigious neuroscience universities in the UK, and surrounded by hundreds of leading neuroscientists.
He/she will have access to research and knowledge that comes from being in such a community, but also through the network of thirteen students starting the same ITN PhD Programme in other parts of Europe. As part of this ITN network, he/she will get access to training and conferences as well as visits to collaborator labs. Finally, the PhD comes with one of the best salaries available in Europe.
In short, this is one of the most exciting opportunities I have been able to offer to an incoming PhD student in my lab. Please get in touch!