Open positions

Please note that the application deadline for the funded studentship has now passed. Projects in this area are still available for self-funded students.

A fully funded PhD position in our lab, starting October 2024 (and open for both UK and international students), is available via the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences DTP at University of Nottingham.

The aim of the project is to further the systems level understanding of the changes in cortical activity under the effect of classical psychedelic compounds, exerted primarily by activation of serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors and related drugs. Our aim is to determine the changes in spontaneous and sensory evoked activity produced by 5-HT2A agonists at the level of single neurons and neuronal populations in sensory and frontal cortex (e.g., see Dearnley et al., Cell Reports 2023). Towards this end, we will use high-density multi-electrode arrays (Steinmetz et al., Science 2021), imaging and computational methods to record and analyse spontaneous and sensory evoked activity of large neuronal populations in mice.

There is a scope to tailor the specific research questions to your interests and strengths. In particular, the research can have a stronger emphasis either on the experimental or the computational research components. The former is typically more appropriate if your background is in biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, medicine or psychology, while the latter is particularly suitable if you have a background in programming or quantitative subjects, e.g., mathematics, statistics, physics or computer science and engineering. 

Please get in touch (michael.okun@nott.ac.uk) for any further information.

Application deadline: 16 January 2024 (noon, GMT)
Application details:  www.nottingham.ac.uk/bbdtp