Postdoctoral Research – Electrophysiology, Modern Circuit Interrogation Approaches

Overview

January 29, 2026

The Mark Bevan Laboratory in the Department of Neuroscience in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University is seeking to fill a postdoctoral research trainee/assistant position. Applications are encouraged from highly motivated scientists with expertise and/or interest in electrophysiology, modern circuit interrogation approaches, and/or mouse behavior. Extensive training and mentorship will also be provided. Applicants should have a PhD in the life sciences, physics, or biomedical engineering, preferably with research experience in neuroscience.

Salary and benefits commensurate with experience. Available immediately but start date is flexible. If interested, please submit a brief cover letter describing career path and goals, a CV, and contact information for 2–3 references to m-bevan.

The primary aims of our work are to understand:

• How basal ganglia microcircuits regulate movement, affect, and cognition.
• Which aspects of basal ganglia circuit dysfunction underlie the symptomatic expression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD).
• Why specific types of basal ganglia cells are susceptible to degeneration in PD and HD.

We then use this data to inform the development of therapies that more effectively treat the symptoms and underlying causes of Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. We use mouse models of PD and HD in combination with several experimental approaches including in vivo and ex vivo electrophysiology, 2-photon imaging, molecular profiling, circuit mapping, optogenetics, chemo genetics, and mouse behavior. This work is supported by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Cure Huntington’s Disease Initiative Foundation, and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Disease.

Our team is compact but highly skilled and committed to rigorous, impactful research. We take training and mentorship seriously, working to produce ethical, independent, creative, organized and technically skilled scientists who will make impactful contributions to biomedical research. Each of our former seven predoctoral and eight postdoctoral mentees remain in science running their own labs or research units in academia or industry, or working as postdoctoral researchers, research assistant professors, scientific administrators or medical writers.

In addition, we place considerable emphasis on good laboratory practice, research safety and data analysis, interpretation and communication.

Mark Bevan, PhD
Rose, James, Sarah and Max Meltzer Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University
303 East Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
m-bevan