Job Description

We are seeking outstanding and driven applicants for a Bioengineering Bench Scientist at the Center for Neurorestoration that has recently been launched at Thomas Jefferson University with $3M of institutional support. Help us help fellow human beings.

The individual will perform electrophysiology research on human neurosurgical specimens, organoids, neural aggregates, organotypic slices and other neural preparations.

Our approach focuses on simultaneous, multi-channel extracellular recording and stimulation of multiple neural specimens. We use tools such as stainless steel and tungsten electrodes, silicon multi-electrode arrays and tetrodes, tissue culture, micro-stimulation, optogenetics, machine learning, and virtual reality. We also have rich data sets of intracranial human electrophysiology recordings that can be used to “entrain” in vitro culture systems. Candidates will work side by side with engineers, software developers, neuroscientists, and clinicians (physicians, surgeons).

New projects include:
* preparing and culturing human cerebral organotypic slices
* developing perfusion systems for human temporal lobe specimens
* developing software to map neural activity recordings (single-unit, ensemble and local field potential) to electrical and optical stimulation patterns to instantiate “virtual white matter” across multiple specimens
* building a virtual reality “virtual organism” behavioral assay stimulus-response system to be linked to the tissue culture systems
* refining an automated culture media exchange system to enable stable chronic electrical recordings
* retrieval and management of human neural tissue and human cerebrospinal fluid repository

Responsibilities:
The candidate will work under the supervision of the team leadership to assist with every phase of the Neurorestoration R&D team.
* Software programming and validation. The Neurorestoration development team develops all the necessary software suites in-house. Programming tools that are routinely used are C, C++, C#, Arduino (C), Matlab and Python, depending on the specific application requirements.
* Work directly with medical staff and patients to gather informed consent for specimen donation, undergo biospecimen courier training and human subjects training, and go the operating room and hospital floors to collect specimens
* Develop real-time neural decoding and stimulation software
* Learn to prepare organoid, assembloid , 3D aggregate and micro-tissue-engineered-neural-networks
* Learn single-unit and local field potential recording and electrical microstimulation and optical stimulation techniques
* Learn and deploy single-unit recording and power spectral analysis techniques

The successful candidates will be expected to conduct experiments, collect and analyze data, give research presentations, write scholarly papers, provide progress reports, and mentor graduate and undergraduate students in the lab.

This position is a 12-month fixed term appointment. Renewal of position is based on funding and performance.

Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Biomechanics, Biomedical/related Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Neuroscience or a related field. Masters preferred, Doctorate welcome. CITI clinical human research training preferred or can be provided. Minimum years of experience 2 years, 5 years preferred. Experience with software programming: C, C++, C#, Matlab and Python. Ideal candidates will have experience in some of the following: extracellular in vitro recording, signal processing, micro-stimulation, virtual reality and game design, ethology, machine learning, writing custom software in languages listed for data analysis, computational neuroscience, tissue culture, immunocytochemistry, tissue microscopy, design and prototyping of electrical circuits and devices using bread boards and perforated boards.

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Please send email inquiries and CV to apply to: Mijail.Serruya@jefferson.edu