Postdoc opening: Excitable cell genetics in C elegans

[Leon Avery]

		   Postdoc Opening in the Avery Lab

The Avery Lab has an opening for a postdoctoral fellow interested in
the genetics and physiology of excitable cell function in Caeno-
rhabditis elegans.  Our laboratory has led the worm field in the
development of electrophysiological methods.  We were the first to
patch-clamp worm neurons and the first to characterize C elegans
neurological mutants electrophysiologically.  Until we began it, there
was no electrophysiology in C elegans; consequently the field is wide
open.  There is lots to learn, and the lab is an exciting place to do
science.

Our work focuses on the pharynx, a self-contained neuromuscular organ
responsible for feeding.  Feeding-defective mutants can be obtained in
a variety of screens or selections, and we have already shown that
several of these mutants identify molecules involved in excitable cell
function, including ion channels, receptors, synaptic vesicle
components, and previously unknown proteins.  (Although much of this
very recent work is not yet published, you can get an idea of our
interests from our WWW server, http://eatworms.swmed.edu/.)  Many
mutants still remain uncharacterized, and many of our most interesting
mutant hunts, being the products of recent results, have barely begun.

We need hands and minds.  If you're interested in supplying a set,
please send a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, preprints of
any papers in preparation or in press, the names and addresses of
three people who can supply recommendations, and a letter describing
your research interests to:

   Leon Avery 
   Department of Biochemistry 
   University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 
   5323 Harry Hines Blvd 
   Dallas, TX 75235-9038 

   Fax: (214) 648-8856 
   e-mail: leon at eatworms.swmed.edu