Postdoctoral Research Associate - Quantitative Microscopy and Live-Cell Chromatin Imaging

About this role

The Solecki Lab is building imaging-based biosensor platforms that make chromatin states directly visible, measurable, and experimentally queryable in living neurons. We are recruiting postdoctoral fellows who want to develop and apply advanced microscopy approaches to understand how chromatin-state transitions unfold as neurons mature and assemble into brain circuits.

This position is ideal for an imaging-focused trainee who wants to work at the interface of live-cell microscopy, chromatin biology, quantitative image analysis, and developmental neuroscience. The central goal is to move beyond indirect molecular endpoints and watch chromatin-state dynamics occur in real time in developing neurons.

Postdoctoral fellows will focus on the imaging challenge of making chromatin-state dynamics measurable in living neurons by optimizing biosensor performance, microscopy acquisition, and quantitative analysis of epigenetic modifications, nuclear organization, and chromatin-state transitions during neuronal differentiation. Projects will combine live-cell imaging, lattice light-sheet and/or super-resolution microscopy, neuronal differentiation systems, acute perturbations, and computational image analysis to understand how gene-regulatory states are organized in developing neurons.

The aim is not simply to apply existing tools, but to help build new experimental frameworks. Fellows will contribute to the development of probes, assays, imaging strategies, perturbation workflows, and quantitative analysis pipelines that make previously invisible chromatin dynamics visible and mechanistically testable.

Successful fellows will define a major project within the lab’s broader effort to understand chromatin-state dynamics, nuclear organization, neuronal maturation, and circuit assembly. They will work closely with the PI and an interdisciplinary team of cell biologists, developmental neurobiologists, biophysicists, optics experts, and data scientists to generate high-risk, high-reward experiments, first-author publications, and a distinctive scientific identity at the interface of advanced imaging and neurodevelopment.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital provides an exceptional postdoctoral training environment with outstanding institutional support, cutting-edge imaging technologies, collaborative core laboratories, and a culture of scientific excellence. Fellows will have access to advanced microscopy platforms, data science expertise, and a highly collaborative environment where new imaging probes, biosensor systems, and analytical methods converge on fundamental problems in brain development.

The Ideal Candidate will have: • a PhD in cell biology, biophysics, gene regulation, neuroscience or related discipline

• Prior experience in live-cell imaging, advanced microscopy, super-resolution microscopy, single-molecule imaging, lattice light-sheet microscopy, or imaging probe development.

• Interest in applying imaging-based approaches to chromatin organization, nuclear dynamics, epigenetic regulation, or neuronal differentiation.

• Familiarity with quantitative image analysis, including tools such as Python, MATLAB, R, Fiji/ImageJ, Imaris, or related platforms.Strong record of peer-reviewed publications

• Experience with segmentation, tracking, registration, time-series analysis, or automated image-processing workflows is desirable.

• Experience with fluorescent probes, biosensors, HaloTag/SNAP-tag systems, protein engineering, or live-cell assay development is desirable.

• Ability for cogent experimental preparation, validation, documentation, and troubleshooting.

In your cover letter, please describe imaging system, protocol, or project that you personally helped build or improve. What was not working at first? What did you change? How did you know the system had become reliable?  What discovery did it enable? 

Contact To apply for this position, send a C.V., Description of Research Interests, Outline of Career Aspirations and the contact information of 3 referees to: David J. Solecki, PhD, Department of Developmental Neurobiology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis TN 38105, USA, david.solecki@stjude.org

St. Jude is an Equal Opportunity Employer

No Search Firms St. Jude Children's Research Hospital does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. Please do not call or email. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee or other representative at St. Jude via email, the internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place and approved by HR will result in no fee being paid in the event the candidate is hired by St. Jude.

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