In the Hartveit-Veruki group (Retinal Microcircuits) at the Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, a full-time (100 %) position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow is available for a period of three (3) years. The position is linked to the consortium project ”Understanding plasticity and neural circuit dynamics in the brain” (TMS Brain Research Initiative), financed by the "Trond Mohn Stiftelse" (TMS), the University of Bergen, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Expected starting date is negotiable, but preferably by end of 2023 / beginning of 2024. The main objective of the TMS Brain Research Initiative is to identify core principles of plasticity and neural circuit dynamics in the brain. The project is hosted by the University of Bergen (UiB) at the Mohn Research Centre for the Brain and organized as a consortium collaboration between the Department of Biomedicine at UiB and the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Through the centre's activities, the Postdoc will interact with a multidisciplinary team covering broad areas of neuroscience and gain experience in scientific presentation and discussion. The project focuses on investigating plasticity of neuronal microcircuits involving amacrine cells in the mammalian retina, including functions of ion channels and chemical and electrical synapses. Primary methods include patch-clamp electrophysiology, two-photon microscopy, and two-photon FLIM-FRET of intracellular signaling. The experimental work will be performed with the mammalian retina as the model system. Your application must be submitted via the JobbNorge website (deadline Oct 20): (https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/249982/postdoctoral-research-fellow-in-neuroscience).

I am working on the vertebrate retina, with a main focus on the mouse and bird retina. Currently my work is focused on three major topics: Functional and molecular analysis of electrical synapses in the retina Circuitry and functional role of retinal interneurons: horizontal cells Circuitry for light-dependent magnetoreception in the bird retina Electrical synapses Electrical synapses (gap junctions) permit fast transmission of electrical signals and passage of metabolites by means of channels, which directly connect the cytoplasm of adjoining cells. A functional gap junction channel consists of two hemichannels (one provided by each of the cells), each comprised of a set of six protein subunits, termed connexins. These building blocks exist in a variety of different subtypes, and the connexin composition determines permeability and gating properties of a gap junction channel, thereby enabling electrical synapses to meet a diversity of physiological requirements. In the retina, various connexins are expressed in different cell types. We study the cellular distribution of different connexins as well as the modulation induced by transmitter action or change of ambient light levels, which leads to altered electrical coupling properties. We are also interested in exploiting them as therapeutic avenue for retinal degeneration diseases. Horizontal cells Horizontal cells receive excitatory input from photoreceptors and provide feedback inhibition to photoreceptors and feedforward inhibition to bipolar cells. Because of strong electrical coupling horizontal cells integrate the photoreceptor input over a wide area and are thought to contribute to the antagonistic organization of bipolar cell and ganglion cell receptive fields and to tune the photoreceptor–bipolar cell synapse with respect to the ambient light conditions. However, the extent to which this influence shapes retinal output is unclear, and we aim to elucidate the functional importance of horizontal cells for retinal signal processing by studying various transgenic mouse models. Retinal circuitry for light-dependent magnetoreception in the bird We are studying which neuronal cell types and pathways in the bird retina are involved in the processing of magnetic signals. Likely, magnetic information is detected in cryptochrome-expressing photoreceptors and leaves the retina through ganglion cell axons that project via the thalamofugal pathway to Cluster N, a part of the visual wulst essential for the avian magnetic compass. Thus, we aim to elucidate the synaptic connections and retinal signaling pathways from putatively magnetosensitive photoreceptors to thalamus-projecting ganglion cells in migratory birds using neuroanatomical and electrophysiological techniques.