Animal Biologist (Neurophysiological Studies) - NIH - Bethesda, MD

Kelly Government Solutions is a strategic supplier and business partner to the federal government and its key suppliers. Through our partnership with the National Institutes of Health, Kelly Government Solutions offers administrative, IT, engineering, scientific, and healthcare professionals the opportunity to work with the leading medical research center in the world. We are seeking an experienced individual to work as an Animal Biologist (Neurophysiological Studies) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

This is a long-term contract position which offers:

• Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefit package
• Optional health, vision, and dental plans
• Vacation leave as well as 10 paid federal holidays and 401K plan.
• Access to NIH's unparalleled resources and niche scientific initiatives

TASKS/SERVICES. The contractor shall:

• Provide support for research on how modifying dopamine receptor stimulation affects dynamic patterns in neuronal spike trains and local field potentials in basal ganglia thalamocortical circuits in a rat model of Parkinson's disease and peripheral nerve lesion.
• Perform surgery for rat neurophysiological studies including artery and vein canulations under isofluorane anesthesia allowing for tight control of anesthesia levels, implantation of acute and chronically-indwelling electrodes, intracerebral injections of drugs.
• Perform single unit recordings studies in anesthetized rats, including preparing glass electrodes for recording of neuronal activity, and recordings studies in awake behaving rats utilizing metal electrodes which have been chronically implanted in awake animals while motor activity is monitored.
• Analyze data from single unit recordings representing local field potentials and neuronal action potentials in different brain regions of the rat brain to monitor changes associated with stroke, dopamine cell lesion (as occurs in Parkinson's disease) and dopamine receptor stimulation; display data in graphic form to further process various periods for cross correlations of spike trains and local field potentials, power spectra, dominant frequency and coherence analysis from all the different pairs of neurons recorded.
• Establish techniques to compare activity of neurons within cortex, basal ganglia and thalamus before and after peripheral nerve lesion to allow integration of data from neurophysiological studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (conducted by collaborators) and permit insight into the neurophysiological basis of changes observed with imaging techniques.
• Work with staff on the verification of data though parallel experiments demonstrating the appropriate type of referencing and absence of signal contamination resulting from volume conduction and grounding errors.
• Process the rat brain tissue for analysis of histochemical markers and localization of the electrode sites after studies are completed.
• Work with staff to maintain the laboratory environment and track the status of supplies needed; order supplies required.
• Present data at scientific meetings and report back to the lab on current developments in the field; mentor research fellows and collaborate with outside investigators.

REQUIREMENTS. The contractor must have:

• M. D. and/or Ph.D. in a related discipline.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in neurophysiological recording techniques in anesthetized and awake behaving rodents, including rodent anesthesia and surgery
• Experience with histological techniques and the skills to effectively process the rat brain tissue after the experiments for histological confirmation of the recording sites.
• Training with the software computer programs necessary for displaying the data from the recording studies in the context of the needs of our laboratory and has experience performing data analysis.

PLEASE APPLY ONLINE
When you apply, please know a Kelly Government Solutions Recruiter will review your resume and will contact you directly, if your skills and experience match the requirements of this position; a full job description can be made available at that time.

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