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Research Scientist, Multiregional Electrophysiology of Rodent Cognition

Astera Institute· Neuro
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Alameda$125k - $175kFull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Experimental neuroscience role focused on large-scale multiregional electrophysiology and optical perturbation to study how the brain builds and uses an internal model of the world in mice.

Responsibilities

  • Help define the cognitive processes and experimental questions we pursue in mice, and design and iterate head-fixed behavioral paradigms to probe them.
  • Perform high-density, multiregional electrophysiology (Neuropixels), recording many single neurons across multiple brain areas simultaneously during behavior.
  • Combine electrophysiology with two-photon imaging and holographic photostimulation, perturbing specific neural activity patterns while recording their consequences across brain areas.
  • Lead the computational analysis of large-scale neural population data, including spike sorting, dimensionality reduction, population decoding, generalized linear models, and inter-areal circuit inference.
  • Set the viral and transgenic expression strategy, including soma-targeted ChRmine and GCaMP for combined recording and manipulation.
  • Perform mouse survival surgery: stereotaxic viral injection, headbar installation, chronic cranial-window implantation, and recording craniotomies and chronic implants.
  • Mentor research associates and technicians and, at the senior or principal level, more junior scientists; contribute to hiring, onboarding, and lab culture.
  • Contribute to publications, talks, open data and tooling releases, and engagement with the broader scientific community.

Qualifications

  • PhD with 0–4 years of experience in neuroscience, bioengineering, physics, or a related field, or equivalent research experience.
  • Hands-on mouse survival surgery experience: stereotaxic injections, headbars, chronic cranial windows, and craniotomies.
  • Hands-on experience with in vivo extracellular electrophysiology in awake, behaving rodents, including high-density silicon probes (Neuropixels).
  • Proficiency in scientific computing for neural-data analysis, in Python and/or MATLAB, with Kilosort, SpikeGLX, or comparable pipelines.
  • Experience training head-fixed rodents on behavioral tasks.

Skills

Required:PhD with 0–4 years of experience in related fieldsStereotaxic surgery in miceIn vivo extracellular electrophysiology (awake, behaving rodents)Computational neural data analysisBehavioral training of head-fixed rodents
Nice to have:Two-photon imaging and optical perturbation (preferred)Multiarea / brain-wide recording analysisViral tools and transgenic mouse lines (ChRmine, GCaMP)

Benefits

  • Astera Neuro provides a comprehensive benefits package and total compensation that is competitive and commensurate with the level of experience and qualifications.
  • We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity and inclusion!
Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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