Neuroscientific PhD Student

Be­schrei­bung

Re­se­arch topic: “Co­ch­le­ar im­plants as in vivo sen­sors (CIAS) – Elec­tro­che­mi­cal mo­ni­to­ring of the in­tra­co­ch­le­ar mi­cro­en­vi­ron­ment and elec­tro­de sta­bi­li­ty”

In the Neu­ro­bio­lo­gy Re­se­arch La­bo­ra­to­ry of our cli­nic, we pri­ma­ri­ly in­ves­ti­ga­te the plasti­ci­ty of the cen­tral au­di­to­ry sys­tem under electri­cal sti­mu­la­ti­on of the au­di­to­ry nerve in ani­mal mo­dels. We use the most suc­cess­ful neu­ro­prosthe­sis in the world, the co­ch­le­ar im­plant (CI). The aim of this in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry pro­ject is , toge­ther with the chair of Prof. S. Ru­pi­tsch (In­sti­tu­te of Mi­cro­sys­tems En­gi­nee­ring IMTEK, Uni­ver­si­ty of Frei­burg), to ex­tend con­ven­tio­nal CI elec­tro­des with the func­tion of an in vivo sen­sor by using novel elec­tro­che­mi­cal me­a­su­re­ment me­thods and thus to per­ma­nent­ly mo­ni­tor the mi­cro­en­vi­ron­ment and elec­tro­de sta­bi­li­ty of the im­plant. To achie­ve this goal, this pro­ject com­bi­nes in­no­va­ti­ve tech­ni­ques such as novel elec­tro­che­mi­cal me­a­su­re­ment me­thods, an ani­mal model to study the ef­fect of acute and chro­nic CI sti­mu­la­ti­on on the au­di­to­ry sys­tem, de­af­ness mo­dels and a un­i­que be­ha­vio­ral setup to study the au­di­to­ry per­cep­ti­on of CI-​supplied rats.

We offer:

par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in an es­tab­lished, high­ly mo­ti­va­ted and com­mit­ted re­se­arch group with ex­cel­lent in­fra­st­ruc­tu­re and re­pu­ta­ti­on (e.g. Rosskothen-​Kuhl et al., eLife 2021; Wel­tin, Rosskothen-​Kuhl et al., Bio­sens Bio­elec­tron. 2022; Buck, Rosskothen-​Kuhl et al., Sci Rep. 2023) sci­en­ti­fic work on an in­no­va­ti­ve and cutting-​edge re­se­arch topic a trans­la­tio­nal pro­ject bet­ween basic au­di­to­ry neu­ro­sci­ence and cli­ni­cal re­se­arch close and di­rect su­per­vi­si­on and in­ten­si­ve trai­ning a close re­se­arch co­ope­ra­ti­on with one of the world's lea­ding in­sti­tu­tes for mi­cro­sys­tems tech­no­lo­gy (IMTEK) a close co­ope­ra­ti­on with lea­ding in­ter­na­tio­nal re­se­arch groups, e.g. with Prof. J. Schnupp con­ti­nuous sup­port for the de­ve­lo­p­ment of your sci­en­ti­fic pro­fi­le

We offer a PhD po­si­ti­on (E13 TV-L, 65%), li­mi­ted to 3 years.Star­ting date: 01.07.2024 or later

Your re­spon­si­bi­li­ties:

work with ani­mals in a la­bo­ra­to­ry en­vi­ron­ment elec­tro­phy­sio­lo­gi­cal and elec­tro­che­mi­cal me­a­su­re­ments con­st­ruc­tion of im­plants for ani­mal ex­pe­ri­ments dea­fe­ning the au­di­to­ry sys­tem of ani­mals me­a­su­re­ment of hea­ring th­res­holds im­plan­ta­ti­on of CIs in ani­mal mo­dels be­ha­vio­ral trai­ning of CI-​supplied rats (e.g. 2-​alternative-forced choice be­ha­vio­ral tests) ta­xi­der­my of his­to­lo­gi­cal tis­sue/ im­mu­n­o­histo­che­mi­cal stai­ning of sec­tions ana­ly­sis of elec­tro­phy­sio­lo­gi­cal and be­ha­vio­ral data using Py­thon ad­ap­ta­ti­ons of the be­ha­vio­ral scripts by using Py­thon

The ideal can­di­da­te (m/f/d) should have:

a mas­ter’s de­gree in neu­ro­sci­ence, bio­lo­gy, (bio-)en­gi­nee­ring or si­mi­lar disci­pli­nes trai­ning in (in-​vivo) elec­tro­phy­sio­lo­gy and/or be­ha­vio­ral bio­lo­gy ex­pe­ri­ence and in­te­rest in working with ani­mals ex­pe­ri­ence in pro­gramming (pre­fer­red Py­thon, Math­L­ab) a cour­se on la­bo­ra­to­ry ani­mal sci­ence (FE­LA­SA) or the wil­ling­ness to com­ple­te it a keen in­te­rest in in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry hea­ring re­se­arch (Neu­ro­sci­ence, me­di­ci­ne, en­gi­nee­ring) in­te­rest in lear­ning new me­thods (e.g. sur­gi­cal tech­ni­ques, con­st­ruc­tion of im­plants, his­to­lo­gy) en­thu­si­asm and great com­mit­ment to in­de­pen­dent and goal-​oriented re­se­arch very good writ­ten and spo­ken pro­fi­ci­en­cy in Eng­lish and/or Ger­man ex­cel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and team-​working skills ex­cee­din­gly high mo­ti­va­ti­on and per­so­nal in­itia­ti­ve

We en­cou­ra­ge ap­p­li­cants who have ex­pe­ri­ence in some, but not ne­ces­sa­ri­ly all, of the areas men­tio­ned above. This is a star­ter po­si­ti­on for a mo­ti­va­ted re­se­ar­cher who wants to ex­pand his/her skills and ad­van­ce in this field.

Your ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons must con­tain the fol­lo­wing do­cu­ments: CV, mo­ti­va­ti­on let­ter, co­pies of cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, as well as names and con­tact de­tails of two re­fe­rees. The ap­p­li­ca­ti­on dead­line is the 24.05.2024.

We are par­ti­cu­lar­ly plea­sed to re­cei­ve ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons from women for the po­si­ti­on ad­ver­ti­sed here.

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