PostDoc, Computational and Experimental Approaches to Visual Physiology

Ref: IOB 170

About the job

The Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) seeks a highly motivated PostDoc. IOB is a research institute combining basic and clinical research. Its mission is to drive innovations in understanding vision and its diseases and develop new therapies for vision loss. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your abilities challenged, and your knowledge expanded.

We are recruiting a PostDoc in the Quantitative Visual Physiology group at IOB. The Quantitative Visual Physiology group at IOB sits at a rare intersection: access to human, primate, and rodent retinal tissue combined with the quantitative tools to make sense of it, and close collaboration with clinicians at the Augenspital Basel. If you want to ask fundamental questions about how the visual system encodes information and how that knowledge can be used to help patients, this is the place to do it.

In this role, you will develop and lead projects related to the physiology of vision using experimental approaches including electrophysiology, data analysis, and computational approaches. Possible methods include ex vivo electrophysiology of human, primate, pig, and mouse retina, in vivo recordings in mice, electroretinograms on mice and humans, and psychophysics using virtual reality headsets. The position combines experimental approaches with the necessary data analysis and computational interpretation of the results including population decoding, computational modeling of retinal circuits, and biophysical modelling. One possible research direction is to study the biophysics of the signal generation of the electroretinogram and how approaches using multielectrode recordings and novel light stimulus designs could improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

Your position

• Own the computational and experimental approaches to study the physiology of vision.
• Define clear research questions to advance our understanding of retinal pathophysiology, natural vision, and information encoding in the visual system.
• Develop and apply data processing pipelines to analyse your own data.
• Work in collaboration within a small team of scientists.
• Communicate progress and results clearly in internal updates, written documentation, and project meetings; contribute to conference presentations and scientific manuscripts.

Your profile

• PhD (or equivalent experience) in computational biology, computational neuroscience, neuroscience, physics, or a related field.
• Strong motivation to develop and refine methods.
• Motivated to work with animals and human participants.
• Highly organized and precise.
• Solid programming and data-analysis skills (e.g., Python or Matlab) and experience working with neurobiological data.

We offer you

• Scientific Excellence & Impact – Join a highly motivated research institute at the forefront of vision research, supported by state-of-the-art facilities in an international, cutting-edge research environment in Basel
• An Environment Built for Performance – We create conditions that enable you to do your best work: A commitment to supporting long-term excellence and family-friendly policies
• Practical Support & Accessibility – Convenient Basel location with excellent public transport, subsidized meals, childcare support, and access to university sports facilities (Unisport)
• A Culture of Mutual Trust – We seek colleagues who bring motivation, innovation, and dedication; in return, we provide the resources, flexibility, and environment where exceptional work thrives