Scientist - Brain Health

Are you ready for new challenges and new opportunities? Join our team in Seattle!
Current job opportunities are posted here as they become available.

The mission of the Allen
Institute is to unlock the complexities of bioscience and advance our knowledge to improve human health. Using an open science, multi-scale, team-oriented approach, the Allen Institute focuses on accelerating foundational research, developing standards and models, and cultivating new ideas to make a broad, transformational impact on science.

The Allen Institute is launching a new moonshot initiative on human brain health and disease. This initiative aims to dramatically accelerate our understanding of human brain structure and function, identify the molecular, cellular and circuit basis of disease progression, and pioneer new therapeutic strategies targeting vulnerable and affected cell types. Our mission focuses on taking a human-centric approach to understanding and treating disease, combining a large-scale open science discovery approach across multiple diseases, AI-based disease modeling, and translational programs in specific diseases to move from discovery to clinical application.

We aim to make transformational change in understanding and treating brain disorders, the biggest health challenge of our time.

Recent work by the Allen Institute-led Seattle Alzheimer’s disease (SEA-AD
) consortium has identified selective vulnerability of specific brain cell types in AD progression. These and other human molecular and histopathological studies have identified specific neocortical glutamatergic and GABAergic neuron subclasses, astrocyte populations, and other emerging cell types that demonstrate early degeneration, synaptic loss, and altered transcriptional states during AD disease progression. We are searching for a Scientist I to join an NIH grant-funded project team to pioneer new approaches for minimally invasive neuron perturbation strategies using “magnetogenetics.”

Novel tools will be developed for high level expression of magnetogenetic actuators in selectively vulnerable cell populations in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse models and for exploratory work in human and non-human primate ex vivo brain slice cultures. The team will functionally characterize efficacy of the tools for bidirectional control of neuron firing using the patch-clamp recording technique. This work is supported by an NIH R61/R33 grant mechanism with multi-year funding to be carried out in two phases over 5 years.

The Scientist I hire will contribute to various aspects of the project including enhancer-AAV validation and optimization, in vivo mouse expression testing, ex vivo macaque and human brain slice culture testing, single cell RNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry, imaging, patch clamp electrophysiology, and data analysis. The successful candidate will have excellent problem-solving skills, careful attention to detail, and strong ability to multitask.

At the Allen Institute, we believe that science is for everyone – and should be open to everyone. We are dedicated to combating biases and reducing barriers to STEM careers more broadly.

We also believe that science is better when it includes different perspectives and voices. We strive to make the Allen Institute a place where everyone feels like they belong and are empowered to do their best work in a supportive environment.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and strongly encourage people from all backgrounds to apply for our open positions.

• Strategy and design for molecular cloning projects to build enhancer-AAVs for magnetogenetic control of neuron or glial function
• Manage enhancer AAV testing, validation, and optimization workflows in collaboration with core teams
• Analysis of scRNA-seq data to evaluate enhancer specificity; utilization of Map My Cells  and various brain cell type taxonomies
• Sectioning brain tissues, immunohistochemistry, and imaging
• Patch-clamp electrophysiology in neuron cell culture or brain slices
• Perform data analysis (Image
  
  J, Excel, R, or Python, etc) and present findings to the team
• Maintain detailed lab notebook and records
• Drive manuscript writing and…