Job Board

The Research Assistant will support UTHealth Houston's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The role focuses on brain imaging, neural modulation, and biomarker research for finding the cause and better treatment for people with schizophrenia, depression, and other psychiatric conditions. You will learn and master some of the most cutting-edge clinical, human brain science, and behavioral research tools and methods in psychology and psychiatry. 

What we do here changes the world. UTHealth Houston is Texas’ resource for healthcare education, innovation, scientific discovery, and excellence in patient care. That’s where you come in.

Once you join us you won't want to leave. It’s because we reward our team for the excellent service they provide. Our total rewards package includes the benefits you’d expect from a top healthcare organization (benefits, insurance, etc.), plus:  

• 100% paid medical premiums for our full-time employees  
• Generous time off (holidays, preventative leave day, both vacation and sick time – all of which equates to around 37-38 days per year) 
• The longer you stay, the more vacation you’ll accrue! 
• Longevity Pay (Monthly payments after two years of service) 
• Build your future with our awesome retirement/pension plan! 

We take care of our employees! As a world-renowned institution, our employees’ wellbeing is important to us. We offer work/life services such as... 

• Free financial and legal counseling 
• Free mental health counseling services 
• Gym membership discounts and access to wellness programs 
• Other employee discounts including entertainment, car rentals, cell phones, etc. 
• Resources for child and elder care 
• Plus many more! 

Position Summary:

Under close direction of senior research staff, conducts activities to support research projects.

Position Key Accountabilities:

1. Under close supervision, conducts research activities according to research protocol. Research activities may include some or all of the following: patient recruiting and screening, traditional laboratory experiments and activities, informatics, field interviewer recruiting, screening and training and/or animal laboratories. 
2. May maintain clean laboratory equipment and/or work area to ensure a safe and efficient work environment.
3. Collects, evaluates, and interprets research data to provide needed information to principal investigators and other researchers. Updates notebooks, records, and databases as needed.
4. Stays abreast of new and updated protocols for research department.
5. Orders laboratory and/or other supplies as directed by senior research staff.
6. As needed, may coordinate the work of laboratory technicians and assistants to ensure efficient, timely and high quality results.
7. Complies with all governmental and University policies, rules, regulations, and codes.
8. Performs other duties as assigned.

Are you an Early Career Researcher keen to advance in the field of Psychology? University of Sussex offers the opportunity for a new ECR to join our community, or further develop their existing role here. We are offering support to talented researchers writing applications for major fellowships, who wish to establish a longer-term career at University of Sussex. We would offer mentorship to develop your bid and, if you are successful, an attractive start-up package including additional Sussex-funding for a PhD studentship, and a transparent tenure-track process to secure a permanent position at the end of the fellowship. Your successful bid would be for an externally-funded fellowship that lasts for at least 5 years and should ideally cover all of your fellowship salary. Your deadline to contact us is 15th May 2025 for applicants wishing to apply for an ERC Starting Grant (whose submission date is October 2025; start date 2026). 

Eligibility is open to researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years post-PhD experience (adjusted for career breaks and part-time status). Applicants should have a highly promising scientific track record and an excellent research proposal. The School is dedicated to diversity and inclusivity, having an Athena SWAN Silver Award, a Race Equity Action Plan, and an active Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion group. We especially encourage applications from those returning from career breaks, and from black and minority ethnic candidates, and women, trans, and non-binary candidates, who are under-represented in the School of Psychology.

Any candidate who successfully wins the externally-funded research Fellowship would be accorded Research Fellow status as a Principal Investigator within the School Psychology, and would be integrated within one (or more) of our six Subject Groups (Biological/ Clinical/ Cognitive/ Developmental/ Social Psychology, or Research Methods). The successful candidate will also benefit from access to shared research facilities, infrastructure, and resources including technical staff. Specialist facilities include the Sussex Child Research Hub, Behavioural Neuroscience labs, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre (with 3T MRI), Brain and Body laboratory; Human Psychophysiology and Psychoacoustic laboratories; and Vision laboratories. In addition, the School of Psychology hosts a number of Research Centres where we have significant critical mass: Sussex Neuroscience, Sussex Addiction Research and Intervention Centre (SARIC), Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness, Centre for Research on Cultural and Societal Diversity, Sussex Centre for Mental Health Research, Centre for Research Reform and Open Science, and the Sussex Centre for Sensory and Perceptual Diversity.

Connect with people from around the world who share your values and passion for giving back. This role offers an opportunity to gain hands-on experience while contributing to our mission.

Functions as a Drug Abuse Treatment Specialist (DATS) within a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) federal correctional facility.

Provides direct services, individual therapy and/or group counseling, drug education, residential and/or non-residential treatment services which focuses on the rational behavioral therapy model of drug abuse treatment and criminality.

Responsible for the education of prison staff about drug abuse, drug abuse treatment and the local prison program.

Administers eligibility and psycho-social assessments as the basis for individual treatment planning.

Attends meetings with supervisors, other drug treatment DATSs, the unit team, etc., to share information, knowledge, ideas, and recommendations for the drug abuse treatment participant.

Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution. The staff correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.

Project Title: Sex-dependent role of dopamine D3 receptors in the individual vulnerability to develop compulsive drug seeking and taking behaviour: preclinical investigations using a novel highly selective antagonist

Supervisor: Professor David Belin

Department/Institute: Physiology, Development & Neuroscience (PDN)

Industrial Partner: Shionogi

Project details:

The opioid epidemic that has been claiming the lives of over half a million people in the US in the past decade is reaching the UK. There are still no effective treatments for addiction to opiate and other drugs such as cocaine and alcohol, thereby limiting our ability to help those who suffer from this debilitating psychiatric disorder, in part due to our lack of understanding of the cellular mechanisms mediating the transition from controlled to compulsive drug seeking and taking behaviour, the hallmark of substance use disorder. Among candidate mechanisms, those downstream of the dopamine D3 receptor, whose expression is profoundly exacerbated by exposure to addictive drugs, have long stood out. However, the role of this receptor in compulsive drug-seeking behaviour has never been determined due to the lack of appropriate procedures in non-human species. Capitalising on a novel animal model of compulsive heroin-seeking habits developed by the Belin lab, a new multi-million-pound partnership with Shionogi has recently been launched to test, among others, the therapeutic potential, and the associated neural signature, of a new highly selective dopamine D3 receptor on drug-seeking habits, compulsive drug seeking and escalation of drug self-administration in male and female rats. This programme of research at the interface of Behavioural neuroscience, neuropharmacology and molecular biology will provide a unique opportunity for a PhD student to acquire a deep knowledge of the psychological and neural basis of substance use disorders while also acquiring a wide range of experimental skills in a very supportive environment.

The industrial partner is one of the few Big Pharma laboratories left investing in fundamental research in neuroscience and pursuing the development of novel treatments for CNS disorders. It has long been interested in expanding their drug discovery strategy to drug addiction. Shionogi has become a primary industrial partner of the Cambridge landscape and is very active in its collaboration with the Cambridge Neuroscience Community. Over the past five years, Shionogi has supported a new line of research into the role of peripheral mu opiate receptors in the behavioural effects of opiates in the context of a BBSRC-ICase studentship with the Belin that has proven very successful, thereby being a testament to the commitment of Shionogi to support research in the field of substance use disorders.

Applicants will be expected to have extensive experience with chronic intravenous self-administration procedures in rats.

Further information on the Cambridge Bioscience DTP PhD programme can be found at this link: https://bbsrcdtp.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/bbsrc-dtp-programme/icase-studentships. Full details of the University's entrance requirements and scholarships are specified in the following link: https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine invites applications for an open-rank faculty position in the Department of Neurobiology. We are seeking candidates with experience in the area of substance use disorders and addictions, motivated behavior, or the consequences of drug experience on brain function. The Department of Neurobiology (link) is an established and well-funded department with over a quarter century of fundamental neuroscience discoveries. Faculty are housed in custom-designed laboratories and offices in the Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building and nearby Civitan International Research Center. The department has strengths in the molecular mechanisms of neuronal function, synaptic communication and plasticity, and animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders, with technical approaches spanning molecular, genetic, cellular, systems, and behavioral levels of analysis. The Department of Neurobiology provides competitive start-up packages, modern laboratory space, excellent core facilities, a collaborative research environment, and world-class training programs. UAB is strongly committed to neuroscience research, and the department is expanding rapidly under new leadership.

Driven by an intensely collaborative and entrepreneurial character, UAB is one of the leading economic engines in Alabama, with a nearly $4 billion budget and a statewide economic impact exceeding $12.1 billion annually. UAB is Alabama’s largest employer with nearly 28,000 employees, and ranks in the top 10 among public universities for NIH funding, with total research expenditures exceeding $715 million in 2022. With nearly 1,700 faculty, 1,200 medical and graduate students, and 12,000 undergraduate students, UAB pursues the frontiers of education, research, and health care and strives to be one of the most dynamic and productive universities of the 21st century. Birmingham is a cosmopolitan city at the heart of a metropolitan area with a population of 1.1 million people. It is a rich cultural center and progressive community with low cost of living, moderate weather, and ample outdoor activities.

Successful applicants will join one of the strongest neuroscience environments in the country. The UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (CNC) has more than 450 neuroscience research faculty, clinicians, staff, students & trainees representing 32 UAB departments across 9 UAB schools. The CNC serves as a focal point for basic and applied neuroscience research at UAB. In addition, UAB is home to several other neuroscience-related centers, including the Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention and Intervention (CAPPI), Civitan International Research Center (CIRC), Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics (CNET), an NIH-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, and Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute. UAB is one of 42 institutions with an NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award, which supports translational research and promotes junior investigators.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. and/or M.D in a related field and a strong record of research accomplishments. Faculty members are expected to establish or continue active independent research programs and to participate in education of professional, graduate, and undergraduate students. To ensure priority consideration, applications should be submitted by September 15, 2025, but applications will be considered until positions are filled. Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, list of references, and brief summary of current and proposed research activities as a single PDF file.

We are seeking to appoint a Researcher in Public Health to lead a collaborative research programme in Derby and the wider Derbyshire area on the socioeconomic determinants of health inequalities and their impact on non-communicable diseases. Our strategic aim is to conduct excellent, multidisciplinary research at the intersection of two growing areas of public health priority.

The programme involves multisectoral collaboration with regional, national and international organisations. The example of the local stakeholders includes the University of Derby's School of Allied Health and Social Care, the Derbyshire NHS Integrated Care System, Derby City Local Authority, Derbyshire County Council, and Derbyshire Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise.

Our target populations include underserved populations living in poverty and minoritised groups facing issues related to substance misuse, mental health disorders, and homelessness. The collaboration aims to how socioeconomic factors such as access to health and social services, income levels, social deprivation, affordable housing, education, and environmental conditions influence non-communicable diseases prioritised in UK public health. Additionally, we will also examine behavioural factors such as gambling, alcohol, and drug addiction, as well as adverse childhood experiences. 

The successful candidate will have the freedom to develop the project with support from Professor Mzwandile Mabhala and other leading experts in public health. This role involves working within a collaborative team that includes both established and early-career researchers, as well as public health practitioners and policy leaders, on a regional, national, and international scale.

Day to day elements of the role include:

• Engage in networking activities to make internal and external contacts develop knowledge, and form relationships for future research collaboration.  
• Identifying opportunities for "bonding networks" to enhance collaborative efforts in advancing the research and development agenda related to health inequalities and vulnerable groups.
• Developing capacity within the wider public health workforce, particularly in non-traditional public health organisations and roles not specifically identified as public health.
• Leading efforts to identify external funding opportunities and develop grant proposals involves conducting literature reviews, preparing research plans, and contributing to budget justifications.
• Preparing research manuscripts for publication in high-impact scientific journals and presenting findings at conferences and seminars.
• Contributing to departmental teaching activities, including supervising PhD and MSc students.

The anticipated interview date is Thursday 1st May 2025.