The Goshen lab studies Neurons and Glia in the Transition from Recent to Remote Memory. We are combining optogenetic and pharmacogenetic manipulations of neurons and astrocytes with other advanced tools (projection targeting, 2-photon imaging in awake behaving mice, in-vivo and slice electrophysiology, CLARITY and behavior) to study the transition from recent to remote memory. The lab is funded by multiple grants (including ERC, ISF, Israel-Canada CIHR-ISF), allowing us to rapidly adopt new techniques, form collaborations, perform state of the art exciting experiments, and publish them in top tier journals.

Example ongoing projects:

• We have recently shown that astrocytic activation can induce de-novo plasticity and enhance memory by performing activity-dependent modulation of neurons (Adamsky et al., Cell, 2018). Now we seek to understand how astrocytes selectively affect the activity of neurons within their domains. We attack this question from several directions, for example by imaging astrocytic and neuronal activity in navigating mice.
• In a large-scale anatomy project, we use CLARITY to image tens of thousands of hippocampal astrocytes in clear brains, and provide a comprehensive quantitative characterization of their spatial distribution, morphology, excitatory neurons content, and proximity to inhibitory neurons in CA1.
• We recently discovered a projection-specific effect of astrocytes on CA1 pyramidal neurons projecting to the ACC during memory acquisition (Kol et al., Nature Neuroscience, In-Press), and now investigate whether astrocytes are capable of such projection-specificity in other tasks, which recruit alternative hippocampal projections.
• We image CA1-to-ACC projecting neurons during memory acquisition, recent recall and remote recall, to study the dynamics in their activity as a memory matures.
• We tag active ensembles during the different stages of memory acquisition and recall, to define their projection targets in cleared whole-brains.

Required skills of research postdocs
Highly motivated candidates must hold a PhD degree in Neurobiology or a related discipline (e.g. Physics or Computer sciences), have passion for science, and experience in animal research and data analysis. Further experience in imaging, electrophysiology or related methods is a significant advantage.

Contact details
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC)
The Hebrew University
Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401