MSCA - Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) on the development of tools for neuron characterization from optical microscopy images

Research project description

We are seeking candidates for the 2024 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme, offering opportunities for early-stage researchers who wish to gain experience in other countries, acquire new skills through advanced training and develop their carrier. In particular, we welcome highly motivated and ambitious researchers of any nationality, interested in working on optical microscopy image processing algorithms for describing the organization of the brain at multiple scales.

It is well-known neural morphology is important for higher level brain function: the analyses of neural structure and neural organization over time is crucial for the study of neuron circuitry development during the first phases of brain growth or for probing the link between cell morphology and degenerative diseases.

In this scenario, the candidate will learn:

• the physics of confocal and light sheet microscopy
• statistical modeling of microscopy images
• the state of the art of model based and data driven approaches to image segmentation

The research project will then focus on the

• Development of protocols for acquiring and co-register images at different spatial resolutions
• Development of multiscale image processing and image segmentation approaches for dendritic branch reconstruction, and localization and characterization of dendritic spines. The approaches will be sharing information at different resolutions levels to optimize the segmentation process (e.g. the segmentation of dendritic branch at low magnification factor, could inform the finer level segmentation step about larger structure identification and neural signal characterization)

The main part of the work will be carried out at the Centro di Ricerca “E. Piaggio” - University of Pisa (https://www.centropiaggio.unipi.it/), one of the oldest research centres in Europe in Bioengineering and Robotics. The candidate will work within the research group led by Prof. Nicola Vanello, expert in image and signal processing in particular applied to the brain. Image acquisition and processing will be coordinated by Dr. Chiara Magliaro, that has a solid background in creating and studying 2D and 3D cellular models.

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must have a PhD degree at the time of the deadline for applications (11^th September 2024). Applicants who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will also be considered eligible to apply.

At the call deadline, the applicant must have a maximum of 8 years experience in research, from the date of the award of their PhD degree. Years of experience outside research and career breaks will not count towards the above maximum, nor will years of experience in research in third countries, for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who wish to reintegrate to Europe.

Mobility Rule: The applicant may be of any nationality but must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy (for European Fellowships) or the host organisation for the outgoing phase (in case of Global Fellowship) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before 11^th September 2024.

Application procedure

Expressions of interest must be sent by email to … (your email address) no later than … (offer deadline) and must consist of two pdf files:

1. Complete and updated CV, clearly demonstrating all 3 eligibility requirements.

Motivation letter, maximum one page.