Looking for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships candidates - Neurobiology of Behaviour

I have focused our research in the study of the neurobiological substrate of psychiatric disorders, including drug addiction and its comorbidity. i) We reported an unexpected role for melanoma antigen genes, and thus, mice lacking Maged1 are insensitive to the cocaine. Our work identifies Maged 1 as a critical molecule involved in cellular and behavioural related to addiction. ii) We also demonstrated that MDPV exposure during adolescence induced long-lasting adaptive changes related to enhanced responsiveness to cocaine that leads to a higher vulnerability to cocaine abuse. iii) We showed functional evidence for the implication of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in the reinforcement of cocaine. Moreover, the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and reduces cocaine voluntary intake by a mechanism involving the cannabinoid CB1 receptors. We propose that cannabidiol is an effective tool to assess the implication of the hippocampal newborn neuron function in the neurobiology of cocaine addiction, and we propose the use of cannabidiol for developing new pharmacotherapies to manage cocaine use disorders. iv) We studied the deleterious effects of maternal alcohol binge drinking for developing foetus. We evaluated the effect of prenatal and postnatal alcohol exposure on cognitive, emotional and addictive behaviour in mice and its underlying molecular mechanisms. Behavioural impairments were associated with an up regulation of pro-inflammatory signalling, gliosis, neuronal death, myelin and epigenetic modifications in discrete brain areas. These molecular alterations in offspring’s brain underlie the long-lasting impairments in behaviour. Our research represents a remarkable advance in the neurobiological substrate of addiction.

Keywords: Neurobiology, drug addiction, neuropsychiatric disorders, depression, cannabinoids, mice.

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships scheme (MSCA-PF) is a prestigious European funding programme that supports mobility, career development, and training within and beyond Europe. The scheme offers highly competitive salary and research costs. 

Eligibility criteria

MSCA-PF are for Postdoctoral Researchers of up to 8 years after the PhD. Applicants from any country may apply, but must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the submission deadline to the European Commission (11/09/2024). 

Selection process

Applicants should check that they fulfil all the eligibility criteria and then send an expression of interest consisting of a CV, a summary presentation of the research proposal (c. 2 pages) and the contact information of at least two referees.

Expressions of interest must be submitted by email by April 30^th. The title of the e-mail must be "MSCA application – Dr. Olga Valverde – your name and surname". Proposals will be preselected on the basis of internal evaluation.

Support program

In addition to receiving multiple feedback from your supervisor, if chosen to submit the proposal to the European Commission, you will also receive advice from a dedicated research advisor at UPF's Research Service, who will provide you feedback three times (mid June, mid July, end August). Additionally, you will be invited to join an online internal Info session where you will get to know the do's and don'ts of these fellowships.