Research Postdoctoral Fellow - Traumatic Brain Injury - Forti Lab
About The Position
Under the direction and guidance of a principal investigator, the Research Postdoctoral Fellow assumes responsibility for an ongoing research project. The role provides an opportunity to extend and refine professional skills, broaden scientific expertise, and develop new research capabilities. The fellow conducts independent scholarly research and contributes to the research project and the laboratory’s overall goals. In Dr. Forti’s laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, the fellow will develop and validate non-invasive optical technologies for monitoring brain physiology after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Supported by an NIH R01, the project uses diffuse optical methods to assess cerebral hemodynamics, oxygen metabolism, and tissue water in a translational large-animal model of pediatric TBI. Under Dr. Forti’s mentorship and alongside biomedical engineers, physicists, and clinicians, the fellow will develop and validate diffuse optical instrumentation and analysis methods. The work combines frequency-domain diffuse optical spectroscopy and speckle-based cerebral blood-flow measurements with tissue-simulating phantom studies, computational modeling, and in vivo validation in a swine TBI model. The fellow will participate in project planning; data collection, interpretation, and evaluation; and communication of results. The position also provides opportunities to develop technical, laboratory-management, and manuscript- and grant-writing skills; participate in scientific meetings and professional-development activities; lead projects; publish research; present at conferences; and contribute to future research proposals. The fellow may supervise junior laboratory members, develop research methods and protocols, and assist with other laboratory projects.
Requirements
- Doctorate required.
- Ability to wear a respirator device.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in biomedical optics, including diffuse optical spectroscopy, diffuse correlation spectroscopy, speckle contrast optical spectroscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, or related techniques.
- Experience developing optical or electronic instrumentation and conducting experimental characterization.
- Experience in physiologic signal processing and time-series analysis.
- Experience developing and validating optical phantoms.
- Experience with Monte Carlo or other computational modeling of light transport in biological tissue.
- Programming and scientific computing experience in Python, MATLAB, C/C++, or related environments.
- Preclinical or large-animal research experience.
- Experience with multimodal physiologic monitoring and analysis.
- Experience in neurophysiology, traumatic brain injury, or cerebral hemodynamics and metabolism.
- A background in experimental biomedical engineering, physics, or optical instrumentation, with an interest in translational neurotechnology.
Responsibilities
- Develop, characterize, and validate diffuse optical instrumentation for non-invasive brain monitoring.
- Develop and evaluate measurement and analysis approaches to reduce contamination of cerebral optical signals from the scalp and skull.
- Design and conduct optical phantom experiments for instrument characterization, calibration, and validation.
- Develop, implement, and maintain signal-processing and quantitative-analysis pipelines for multimodal optical data.
- Participate in in vivo optical measurements in a swine model of traumatic brain injury.
- Integrate optical measurements with physiologic monitoring, MRI, and other reference measurements for technology validation.
- Analyze multimodal physiologic datasets and contribute to statistical interpretation of study results.
- Collaborate with research technicians, students, engineers, and clinical and preclinical collaborators.
- Communicate results through peer-reviewed manuscripts, conference presentations, progress reports, and other scientific deliverables.
- Contribute to grant proposals and develop new research directions in the laboratory.
- Participate in seminars, laboratory meetings, and scientific and professional-development activities.
- Conduct independent scholarly research and develop new methods and protocols.
- Participate in project planning and the recording, interpretation, and evaluation of data.
- Develop technical, laboratory-management, and grant-writing skills.
- Participate in lectures, poster sessions, and presentations at national meetings.
- Supervise junior laboratory members.
- Assist with other research projects.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Intern
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
