Postdoctoral Associate

A position for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Electrophysiology and Neuroscience is available in the laboratory of Dr. Peng Jiang in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rutgers University New Brunswick. The research theme of the laboratory is on investigating cellular and molecular basis of human neural development and pathogenesis of neurological disease utilizing human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). We focus on (i) Establishing patient-derived and disease-specific hiPSCs; (ii) Modeling neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease) and finding new therapeutics using hiPSC-based in vitro brain organoid and in vivo human-mouse chimeric brain models; and (iii) Differentiating hiPSCs towards neural lineages for regenerative medicine and developing hiPSC-based cell therapies utilizing animal models of human CNS injuries (e.g. brain hypoxic-ischemic injury). We have been using a combination of multidisciplinary techniques in our research, including stem cell reprogramming, electrophysiology/patch-clamp recording, imaging techniques, molecular/cell biology (including CRISPR/Cas9), biochemistry, pharmacology, bulk and single cell RNA-sequencing techniques, transgenic and surgically induced animal models, and animal behavioral testing.

For more information about our research, please see our recent representative publications:

*Xu, R., Brawner, A., Li, S., Liu, JJ., Kim, H., Xue, H., Pang, Z., Kim. WY., Hart, R., Liu, Y., Jiang, P. (2019). OLIG2 Drives Abnormal Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes in Human iPSC-Based Organoid and Chimeric Mouse Models of Down Syndrome. Cell Stem Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2019.04.014

*Kim, H., Xu, R., Padmashri, R., Dunaevsky, A., Liu, Y., Dreyfus, C., Jiang, P. (2019). Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cerebral Organoids Reveal Human Oligodendrogenesis with Dorsal and Ventral Origins. Stem Cell Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2019.04.011

*Chen, C., Kim, W. Y., & Jiang, P. (2016). Humanized neuronal chimeric mouse brain generated by neonatally engrafted human iPSC-derived primitive neural progenitor cells. Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight. https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/88632

*Xu R, Boreland A, Posyton A, Kwan K, Hart R, Jiang P. Xenotransplantation of Human PSC-derived Microglia Creates a Chimeric Mouse Brain Model that Recapitulates Features of Adult Human Microglia. 2019. bioRxiv link: https://doi.org/10.1101/594721

A full list of our publications can be found here: https://www.sas.rutgers.edu/cms/cbn/peng-jiang-lab/353-publications)

We are looking for individuals who are interested in working on differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to neural cells or tissues, and application of these stem cell technologies to the development of in vitro and in vivo models for better understanding human brain development and disease and for drug screening/discovery.

Candidates should have a good publication record and a Ph.D. in neuroscience, stem cell biology or related fields. Candidates must have extensively experience with both in vitro and in brain slice electrophysiology and performing patch-clamp recordings for pre- and post-synaptic transmission and long-term potentiation. Experiences with stem cell culture and differentiation, molecular and biochemical assays, and animal work are desired.