Location
ST. LOUIS, MO 63110
Position Summary
The Kroll laboratory is seeking Postdoctoral Research Associates to spearhead new investigations expanding upon our core research programs in human cortical development and neurodevelopmental disorders (including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, epilepsy, and brain overgrowth syndromes).
Fellows will drive independent projects leveraging our established human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) differentiation pipelines—utilizing patient-derived iPSCs, patterned brain organoids, and assembloids—alongside our multi-omics, high-content imaging, and HD-MEA functional assessment platforms. Successful candidates will collaborate closely with team members to uncover transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms governing GABAergic interneuron and excitatory neuron specification.
The Kroll laboratory focuses on defining transcriptional and epigenetic regulatory networks that build the human cerebral cortex, and how disruption of these programs causes neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. We study how cortical neural progenitors are specified and initiate neurogenesis, and how the two major classes of cortical neurons, glutamatergic excitatory neurons and GABAergic inhibitory interneurons, differentiate, mature, and assemble into functional networks.
To study these processes in human cells, we use directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including genome-edited and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), into cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons and patterned brain organoids and assembloids. We combine these models with genome-wide approaches including defining changes in genome-wide transcription factor occupancy and histone modification state by CUT&RUN/Tag, RNA-seq, high-content imaging, and functional neuronal network assessment by high-density multi-electrode array. We also work with complementary mouse models to study aspects of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Job Description
Primary Duties & Responsibilities:
Information on being a postdoc at WashU in St. Louis can be found at https://postdoc.wustl.edu/prospective-postdocs-2/ .
Lab Website: https://sites.wustl.edu/krolllab/ .
Trains under the supervision of a faculty mentor including (but not limited to):
Designs, performs, and interprets experiments using hPSC directed differentiation in 2-D and 3-D culture, genome-edited and patient-derived models, and molecular, cellular, genomic, and imaging methods.
Defines chromatin state, transcription factor occupancy, and transcriptional regulation (e.g., CUT&RUN/CUT&Tag, RNA-seq), and analyzes and integrates these datasets using R/RStudio-based workflows, with primary data processing supported by the Bioinformatics Research Core.
Presents work at lab meetings, institutional seminars, and national and international conferences.
Prepares manuscripts and contributes to grant preparation and reporting.
Helps mentor graduate and undergraduate trainees in the laboratory.
Maintains accurate research records and complies with ethical standards, good laboratory practice, and University policies, including hPSC research oversight and biosafety requirements.
Evaluates research findings and assists in the reporting of the results.
Conscientious discharge of their research responsibilities.
Maintains conformity with ethical standards in research.
Maintains compliance with good laboratory practice including the maintenance of adequate research records.
Engages in open and timely discussion with their mentor regarding possession or distribution of material, reagents, or records belonging to their laboratory and any proposed disclosure of findings or techniques privately or in publications.
Collegial conduct towards co-trainees, staff members and members of the research group.
Adherence to all applicable University policies, procedures and regulations. All data, research records and…