About us
The Neural Circuits for Pain lab is led by Dr Liam Browne and based in the UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research. We study how brain circuits contribute to chronic pain and other maladaptive brain states. We develop tools to study these circuits and to test new ways to control them. The lab uses optogenetics, chemogenetics, two-photon imaging, electrophysiology, machine learning, and quantitative behavioural analysis.
This post is part of EPIONE, a major EPSRC and MRC-funded programme in neurotechnology for chronic pain. EPIONE brings together UCL, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow. The aim is to develop adaptive technologies for the treatment of chronic pain.
About the role
We are looking for a motivated, creative and technically strong Postdoctoral Research Fellow to develop preclinical neurotechnology for adaptive neural interfaces. The role will involve chronic implantation in mice, neural recording, behavioural monitoring, coding, device control, and quantitative analysis. The post holder will build and test experimental systems that can sense neural or behavioural state and use this information to guide intervention in real time.
This project brings together basic circuit science, chronic pain biology and implantable neural interfaces. The work will suit someone who likes to build new tools and use them to answer hard questions. The post holder will work across in vivo neuroscience, custom behavioural systems, data acquisition, analysis pipelines and closed-loop control.
They will work closely with collaborators across EPIONE, including neuroscientists, engineers, clinicians, and industry partners. The expected outputs include new experimental tools, high-quality preclinical data, candidate device strategies, papers and conference outputs. The post holder will be supported to build a strong research profile. Where appropriate, they will also be supported in fellowship and grant plans.
About you
The role would suit a systems neuroscientist, neuroengineer or in vivo neuroscientist who wants to work across brain circuits, behaviour, and neural interfaces. You will have a PhD, or be close to completion, in neuroscience, neurotechnology, bioengineering or a related field. You should have strong hands-on experience with in vivo mouse experiments, ideally including chronic implants, neural recording or long-term behavioural studies. You should be confident working in an in vivo research setting and keen to develop high-level skill in preclinical neurotechnology. You should care about careful experiments, good records, robust design, and high standards in regulated research. You should also be comfortable with code and quantitative analysis. Experience with Python and similar would be a strong advantage. Experience building or adapting behavioural, recording or control systems would also be valuable. The strongest candidates will enjoy building devices, testing them, improving them, and using them to move brain circuit science towards translational impact for chronic pain. You should be able to take ownership of a project, work well with collaborators from other fields, and drive high-quality work towards papers, talks and future career development. This role would suit someone who wants to do rigorous systems neuroscience with a clear route to neural engineering and clinical translation.
Apply here: Job details | Work at UCL - UCL – University College London