The Stern Laboratory at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) is currently inviting applications for postdoctoral research fellows. If you are interested in examining the neural circuits underlying complex motivated behaviors (and in particular related to feeding and/or reward) and/or interoception, and if you want to work in a dynamic, open and collaborative environment, then we are interested in you!

The Stern Laboratory focuses on elucidating the neural mechanisms, from genes to circuits, that coordinate complex behaviors. In particular, we use state-of-the-art molecular profiling and RNA sequencing technologies to discover novel cell types that define specific neural circuits and behaviors. We combine this with optogenetics, chemogenetics and calcium imaging (including bulk fluorescence and single cell imaging) in order to gain comprehensive and mechanistic knowledge about how complex behaviors are coordinated and orchestrated. Producing high quality science is a priority, but so is creating a lab environment that is collaborative, diverse, and inclusive to all, with supportive mentorship and a positive space for everyone.

Potential projects in the lab include tool development for behaviorally-relevant cell-type identification using transcriptomics, understanding the neural encoding of interoceptive states and salience by the insula, the role of insula in brain-body communication.