Neurophotonics at the nanoscale

Dr Juan Varela's Research Group

Opportunities

Positions currently available:

We have a PhD studentship immediately available:

Biophysics of cerebrospinal fluid circulation in the brain

Small “waste” solutes circulate the narrow space in between brain cells and are cleared through mechanisms not fully understood. This knowledge gap is partly due to the lack of techniques to study dynamic events such a complex space. Exciting advances in this field have recently shown that flow-mediated clearance is enhanced during sleep due to a major volume change in the extracellular space, facilitating the flow of the interstitial fluid. However, this process has only been characterised at a low spatial resolution while the physiological changes regulating this process occur at the nanoscale. Understanding flow circulation at high spatial resolution requires the development of nanoscale imaging techniques that can study the brain in living animals. The PhD project aims to understand how nanoscale changes in Aquaporin-4 arrays facilitate volume changes in the extracellular space of the brain, which in turn will regulate the clearance of soluble waste products. To achieve this, the successful PhD candidate will perform super-resolution imaging in brain slices and single-nanoparticle tracking in vivo to characterise key features of the so called “glymphatic” hypothesis. We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD student with a background in either physical or biological sciences, willing to work in an interdisciplinary environment studying the brain at the single-molecule level. Experience in biophysics and/or neurosciences will be advantageous. 

Relevant references

Godin et al., “Single-nanotube tracking reveals the nanoscale organization of the extracellular space in the live brain”. Nature Nanotechnology, 12, 238–243 (2017).

Varela et al., “Targeting neurotransmitter receptors with nanoparticles in vivo allows single molecule tracking in brain tissue”. Nature Communications, 7:10947 (2016).

Varela et al., “Single nanoparticle tracking of NMDA receptors in cultured and intact brain tissue”. Neurophotonics, 3:41808 (2016).

Xie et al., “Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain”. Science 342, 373–7 (2013).

Nicholson et al., “Brain Extracellular Space: The Final Frontier of Neuroscience”. Biophysical Journal, 113, 2133–2142 (2017).

Fellowships:

We welcome applications from enthusiastic students and postdocs, and we are happy to support applications for a wide range of fellowships. Please contact Dr Juan Varela (jv32 at st-andrews.ac.uk), and include a brief cover letter and CV.  Some opportunities you might want to consider are:

We also welcome undergraduate students from the University of St Andrews wishing to apply for funding to do an internship in our lab.

Cookie preferences