Post Doctoral Fellow

Site: The McLean Hospital Corporation

 

Mass General Brigham relies on a wide range of professionals, including doctors, nurses, business people, tech experts, researchers, and systems analysts to advance our mission. As a not-for-profit, we support patient care, research, teaching, and community service, striving to provide exceptional care. We believe that high-performing teams drive groundbreaking medical discoveries and invite all applicants to join us and experience what it means to be part of Mass General Brigham.

 

Job Summary

McLean Hospital is a comprehensive psychiatric hospital committed to providing easy access to superior quality, cost-effective mental health services in the Boston area, Massachusetts and beyond. Since 1811, McLean Hospital has been a world leader in the treatment of mental illness and chemical dependency, research into the cause of mental illness and the training of generations of mental health care providers. McLean's multidisciplinary programs treat a broad range of psychiatric illnesses across the full continuum of care.

All McLean team members are expected to consistently demonstrate our values of integrity, compassion, respect, diversity, teamwork, excellence and innovation in their work activities and interactions.

A post-doctoral fellow typically holds dual affiliations at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

There are many opportunities for education and growth in our multidisciplinary, collaborative research environment at McLean Hospital that brings together a diverse group of neurobiologists, clinicians, psychologists and statisticians. Please see https://www.mcleanhospital.org/research
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Job Description
With supervision and guidance, responsibilities of the Postdoctoral Research Fellow will include:
o Performs independent and highly specialized experimental procedures
o Designs and implements modifications of research protocols
o Troubleshooting problems and instructing colleagues in highly specialized techniques
o Synthesizes and interprets results
o Performs advanced data recording and analysis using various software programs and statistical techniques
o Maintaining organized and detailed records of laboratory experiments in electronic laboratory notebooks
o Presentation of results at lab meetings and national conferences
o Preparation and submission of research manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals
o Assisting with preparation of grant applications
o Other duties as assigned

A successful candidate will:
o Work independently under general direction of the Principal Investigator
o Be motivated, meticulous, organized, and detail-oriented
o Demonstrate initiative and enthusiasm for learning new techniques
o Have strong analytical and problem-solving skills
o Possess strong technical abilities and computer science skills
o Possess exceptional written and oral communication skills as demonstrated by publications and presentation
o Possess the ability to make independent and effective decisions in a timely fashion
o Possess competence in research techniques and methodologies
o Have excellent interpersonal skills
o Be a team player who works well with other lab members

Additional Job Description

Postdoctoral Fellow in Translational Neuroscience and Psychiatric Disorders
The Translational Neuroscience Laboratory at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School seeks a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and stress-related symptoms. The position will focus on human postmortem brain studies integrating single-cell transcriptomics, advanced microscopy and quantitative image analysis, and primary human brain cell culture.
Research Program
The fellow will contribute to a multidisciplinary research program examining how stress and immune signaling affect multicellular interactions among neurons, glia, and the neurovascular unit (NVU). The NVU—including brain endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes, microglia, neurons, and the vascular basal lamina—is positioned at the interface between systemic and neural processes and may play a critical role in translating immune and metabolic dysregulation, chronic stress, and other challenges into altered neural function and psychiatric symptoms.
The research investigates the hypothesis that stress-related symptom dimensions—including anxiety, irritability, depression, anhedonia, and related constructs—are associated with impaired NVU homeostatic reserve: the capacity of NVU cells to respond adaptively to stress and immune challenges. Studies will examine coordinated gene-expression programs across neuronal, glial, and vascular cell populations and determine how their disruption relates to clinically relevant symptom dimensions across psychiatric diagnoses.
The postdoctoral fellow will work with deeply characterized human postmortem brain specimens, primarily from the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, and with cellular preparations derived from the same donors. Molecular and cellular findings will be integrated with transdiagnostic clinical phenotypes derived from extensive health records using natural-language-processing approaches.
Research Activities and Responsibilities
Depending on expertise and research interests, the fellow will participate in several complementary areas of investigation:
• Conduct studies using well-characterized human postmortem brain specimens from donors with psychiatric disorders and unaffected comparison donors.
• Perform advanced fluorescence microscopy, multiplex in situ RNA and protein detection, and quantitative image analysis.
• Investigate cellular morphology, cytoarchitecture, microvascular organization, and structural features of the blood–brain barrier and NVU.
• Establish and study primary human astrocyte, microglial, and brain endothelial cell cultures derived from postmortem brain tissue.
• Conduct experiments using iPSC-derived glial and vascular cell models, including comparisons with primary cells and native brain tissue from the same donors.
• Design experiments examining cellular responses to cytokines, stress neuropeptides, and other immune or metabolic challenges.
• Apply single-cell or single-nucleus transcriptomic approaches to whole brain tissue, isolated microvasculature, and cultured cells.
• Analyze cell-type-specific and coordinated multicellular gene-expression programs involving neurons, astrocytes, microglia, endothelial cells, pericytes, and other NVU components.
• Integrate molecular, cellular, morphological, and functional measures with transdiagnostic dimensions of stress-related symptoms.
• Work collaboratively with investigators specializing in psychiatry, neuropathology, stem-cell biology, genomics, computational biology, and clinical phenotyping.
• Contribute to experimental design, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, scientific presentations, and grant applications.
• Develop independent research questions and pursue opportunities for fellowship and career-development funding.
Training and Research Environment
The fellow will join a collaborative translational neuroscience environment at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with access to exceptional human brain resources, advanced imaging and genomic technologies, and multidisciplinary expertise. The position provides opportunities to acquire new experimental and computational skills, develop an independent scientific direction, present findings at national and international conferences, publish in high-impact journals, and prepare competitive applications for independent funding.

 

Qualifications

Candidates should hold a PhD, MD, or equivalent doctoral degree in neuroscience, molecular or cellular biology, neurobiology, neuropathology, biomedical engineering, or a related discipline.

Experience in one or more of the following areas is desirable:

• Fluorescence or confocal microscopy and quantitative image analysis
• Human postmortem brain research, neuroanatomy, or neuropathology
• Primary cell culture or iPSC-derived neural, glial, or vascular cells
• Single-cell or single-nucleus RNA sequencing
• Molecular biology, histology, or multiplex RNA/protein detection
• Blood–brain barrier or neurovascular-unit biology
• Glial biology, neuroimmunology, or stress and immune signaling
• Bioinformatics, transcriptomic analysis, or integration of multimodal datasets

Strong candidates will demonstrate scientific curiosity, careful attention to experimental rigor, excellent organizational and communication skills, and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Prior experience in every methodology is not required; training will be tailored to the fellow’s background and research goals.

If interested in the position, please email a cover letter, CV, and three references to Sabina Berretta, M.D. (s.berretta@mclean.harvard.edu)

EXPERIENCE: Prior lab experience required. Must have evidence of strong scientific productivity, including peer-reviewed publications. Open to highly motivated candidates with a relevant background.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: Assistance in guiding research technicians and trainees in the lab is expected.

WORKING CONDITIONS: Work will be performed in a fast-paced research laboratory environment, requiring teamwork, collaboration, and flexibili