APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants.

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.

This position is funded for 12 months; continuation past 12 months will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding.

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POSITION SPECIFICS​

The Borland lab (Johnathan M. Borland, Ph.D.) in the College of Health and Human Development is seeking a Research Technologist. The successful candidate will learn and perform a diversity of fundamental neuroscience approaches including but not limited to:

• Behavioral assays of social behavior and reward/motivation

• Fluorescent immunohistochemistry

• RNAscope

• Western blots

• In vivo micro pharmacology in the Syrian hamster model

The primary responsibility of this position is the execution of these wet lab and behavior experiments such as fluorescent immunohistochemistry, RNAscope and Western blots, in conjunction with the collection and analysis of data. These experiments will be both a part of independent projects lead by this researcher and in support of the projects of graduate students in the lab.

Secondary responsibilities of this position include the maintenance of rodent housing facilities, the purchasing of laboratory supplies, and the maintenance of chemical inventories, rodent surgery records and drug records.

• The research technician will also be exposed to a diversity of more advanced neuroscience approaches utilized in the Borland lab including but not limited to…

• Rodent surgeries (e.g. ovariectomy and stereotaxic surgery)

• Circuit tracing

• Calcium and dopamine recording with fiber photometry

• Chemogenetic DREADDs

• Optogenetics

• CRISPR/Cas9

• Other molecular genetic and gene transfer approaches in Syrian hamsters. 

Description of Lab

Overall, the Borland lab investigates the neuronal and molecular mechanisms that regulate reward for social interactions. The laboratory is particularly focused on differences in mechanisms between males and females, such as mechanisms regulating the heightened sensitivity in females compared to males (Borland et al., Neuropsychopharmacology 2019). Specific mechanisms of immediate interest include the regulation of oxytocin, dopamine and glut