PhD Student

PhD Position in Neuroscience

Position: Ph.D. Student

Deadline: 27 May 2026

Employment Start Date: 1 June 2026 or later

Contract Length: 4 Years

City: Innsbruck

Country: Austria

Institution: Medical University of Innsbruck

Department: Institute of Pharmacology

Description of the research project

Focal points of interest

Fear and anxiety support survival in a natural environment and interact with basic needs like eating, drinking, temperature control, and reproduction. For instance, a hungry individual may take a higher risk when exploring unknown territory in search for food, whereas in a saturated state safety concerns will predominate.

Our research focuses on the integration of emotionally controlled survival circuits with a specific emphasis on how anxiety, fear and stress interact with feeding and hunger. In particular, we are interested in the role of evolutionarily conserved neuropeptides (e.g. Neuropeptide Y, Neurokinin B) in intrinsic circuitries within the extended amygdala as well as projections to hypothalamus and brainstem (Comeras, Herzog, & Tasan, 2019). This will provide a deeper understanding of how feeding- and anxiety / fear-related circuitries mutually interact and integrate into a wider brain network. Our main findings include the identification of an evolutionarily conserved reciprocal interaction of emotional and metabolic processes in the brain (Ip et al., 2019). Mechanistically, we demonstrated that hunger suppresses the consolidation of fear memories and facilitates fear extinction by modification of an amygdala microcircuit (Verma et al., 2016). Importantly, these findings are valid for several species, including human subjects. Thus, evolutionarily conserved neuronal circuitries controlling feeding and hunger differentially integrate into those for anxiety and fear, under physiological and dysregulated conditions.

Technical proficiency and instrumentation

Our laboratory at the Institute of Pharmacology (https://www.i-med.ac.at/en/pharmakologie/) performs a series of emotional and cognitive behavioral paradigms, including anxiety, fear (differential fear conditioning, fear extinction, pattern separation), and spatial learning tests in mice.

We are integrating these data sets with long-term measurements of food intake and energy consumption in a metabolic phenotyping unit. This allows us to obtain real-time measurements of feeding / drinking and activity monitoring, with total activity, preferred location within the cage and wheel running, over several weeks and months. During these recordings, we apply restricted feeding paradigms, different diets and aversive learning tasks.

For in vivo neuronal manipulations, we develop and employ AAV-mediated shRNA, CRISPR / saCas9, optogenetics / chemogenetics, reporter / activity sensors and genetically encoded cell-type-specific protein synthesis inhibition in transgenic mouse lines.

We are combining ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiological recordings together with fiber photometry / high-resolution fluorescent imaging (miniscope) to monitor neuronal activation pattern, transmitter release and neuropeptide modulation in genetically modified mice during behavioral challenges.

Our laboratory runs a viral vector platform for developing and packaging specifically designed constructs into different AAV pseudotypes with cell type preferring promoter / enhancer elements for permanent, recombinase-dependent, intersectional, and inducible expression systems.

Aspirations for the next 4 years

We propose to investigate the role of different neuropeptides, individual or in combination, in the integration of feeding with anxiety / fear associated behavior in a cortical - extended amygdala -hypothalamic pathway. This will include genetic manipulation, activity monitoring, ex vivo electrophysiological recordings and expression profiling of specific bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) / central amygdala (CEA) GABA neurons together with the investigation of their neuropeptide-dependent behavioral responses (emotional, metabolic, and cognitive). We want to uncover the underlying mechanism of differential regulation of these GABA neurons in males and females and their neuropeptide related contribution. We will focus on the BNST, which displays highly sexually diverse structural and functional composition and compare it to the closely related CEA, where responses are relatively equal between sexes.

For more details, please visit the website of an integrated research cluster in Austria (https://hirnforschung.meduniwien.ac.at/fwf-cluster-of-excellence-neuronal-circuits-in-health-and-disease/fwf-cluster-of-excellence-members/ramon-tasan/) and the homepage of the neuroscience program in Innsbruck (https://biomed-phd.i-med.ac.at/neuroscience/).

Further readings

Comeras, L. B., Herzog, H., & Tasan, R. O. (2019). Neuropeptides at the crossroad of fear and hunger: a special focus on neuropeptide Y. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1455(1), 59-80. doi:10.1111/nyas.14179

Ip, C. K., Zhang, L., Farzi, A., Qi, Y., Clarke, I., Reed, F., Shi, Y. C., Enriquez, R., Dayas, C., Graham, B., Begg, D., Bruning, J. C., Lee, N. J., Hernandez-Sanchez, D., Gopalasingam, G., Koller, J., Tasan, R., Sperk, G., & Herzog, H. (2019). Amygdala NPY Circuits Promote the Development of Accelerated Obesity under Chronic Stress Conditions. Cell Metab, 30(1), 111-128 e116. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2019.04.001

Verma, D., Wood, J., Lach, G., Herzog, H., Sperk, G., & Tasan, R. (2016). Hunger Promotes Fear Extinction by Activation of an Amygdala Microcircuit. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(2), 431-439. doi:10.1038/npp.2015.163

Required qualifications

Master’s degree in Neuroscience, Cell/Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Molecular Medicine, or a related discipline.

Research experience in one or more of the following areas:

Animal models, microscopy, stereotaxic injections, rodent behavioral testing, metabolic phenotyping, electrophysiology, in vivo high-resolution fluorescent imaging, histochemical and molecular biological methods.

Experience in animal experimentation (FELASA course or equivalent).

Strong motivation, conceptual thinking, reliability, and ability to work independently and collaboratively.

What we offer

Fully funded PhD position for 4 years.

Cutting-edge technologies (metabolic phenotyping unit, in vivo high-resolution fluorescent imaging and electrophysiological recordings, viral vector platform, behavioral phenotyping unit).

Integration into a dynamic, interdisciplinary research community.

Collaborations with renowned scientists of the FWF Cluster of Excellence “Neuronal Circuits in Health and Disease”.

Professional training and career development support.

How to apply

Submit one single structured pdf file containing:

• Letter of motivation

• CV

• Transcript of records

• Research experience

• List of publications

• Letter(s) of reference

The position is announced in the "Mitteilungsblatt" of the Medical University Innsbruck.

https://www.i-med.ac.at/mitteilungsblatt/media/34.pdf

Applications must be submitted by May 27, 2026 (receipt date) quoting the reference number of the job posting (Chiffre: MEDI-20533) by email (pdf format) to: bewerbung(at)i-med.ac.at