Job ID: 123051

PhD in circuit neuroscience at the Center for Brain Research (CBR)

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 30 June 2025

Employment Start Date: 1 October 2025

Contract Length: 4 Years

City: Vienna

Country: Austria

Institution: Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna

Department: Neuronal Cell Biology

Description:

Emotions are a central part of our mental self, shaping perception, memories, and behaviors (Pfaff et al., 2019). The Haubensak Laboratory is seeking an enthusiastic and self-motivated PhD student to pioneer novel multidisciplinary approaches towards understanding the emotional brain, as part of the Cluster of Excellence “Neuronal Circuits in Health and Disease”. We use circuit and computational neuroscience to deconstruct how neuronal circuits process affective information. For more details on our research activities, please visit http://cbr.meduniwien.ac.at/organisation/dept-neuronal-cell-biology/home and https://www.imp.ac.at/groups/wulf-haubensak.

Main activities and tasks:

This PhD project will be an integral part in our quest to understand inhibitory designs in cortico-limbic networks and their neurogenetic modulation. Using state of the art circuit neuroscience in animal models (circuit tracing, calcium imaging, optogenetics and behavioral profiling), the successful candidate will investigate how interoceptive set points emerge from inhibitory circuit motifs and control cortico-limbic interactions and affective states in health and disease (Kargl et al., 2020; Sladky et al., 2024). PhD students at the Medical University are additionally required to attend several lectures and workshops per semester, participate in student activities organized by the Center for Brain Research and present their work to fellow academics in local and international conferences.

Your Profile:

Undergraduate degree in natural sciences or medicine.
Master/Diploma with specialization in neuroscience.
Interest in affective neuroscience and animal behavior.
Experience with basic laboratory techniques, behavioral profiling, and/or rodent handling is an advantage.
FELASA certificate (or equivalent) is an advantage.
Excellent command of English, written and spoken.
You are able to work independently and as a team member.

Our offer:

This is a full-time (30hrs/week) position with a monthly gross salary of 2,786.10 EUR. The Medical University of Vienna offers an international, multicultural environment in the most livable city in the world. As a PhD student, you will become a member of the Excellent Brains Program, an umbrella program of the prestigious interdisciplinary and international FWF Cluster of Excellence and PhD Neuroscience Program at the Medical University of Vienna

The Medical University of Vienna aims to increase representation, especially in scientific and management positions. We expressly encourage qualified minorities to apply. It would be great to welcome you as an independent and communicative member of our team, with enthusiasm to shape our interactive environment and workflows for interdisciplinary neuroscience.

For more information about the application process or the research of our Department, please contact us by email at wulf.haubensak@meduniwien.ac.at or apply directly to the general call via the Excellent Brains website.

Relevant literature:

Kargl, D., Kaczanowska, J., Ulonska, S., Groessl, F., Piszczek, L., Lazovic, J., Buehler, K., & Haubensak, W. (2020). The amygdala instructs insular feedback for affective learning. eLife 2020;9:E60336, 9, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60336

Pfaff, D., Tabansky, I., & Haubensak, W. (2019). Tinbergen’s challenge for the neuroscience of behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(20), 9704–9710. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903589116

Sladky, R., Kargl, D., Haubensak, W., & Lamm, C. (2024). An active inference perspective for the amygdala complex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(3), 223–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.11.004