In our Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics (PI: Dr. Fatemeh Haghighi), we have an exciting opportunity to join our basic and translational team as a Senior Research Scientist to investigate the neuroimmune and neuroendocrine basis of suicidal behavior through genomics approaches.
The successful candidate will be responsible for collaborating with the Principal Investigator (PI) as well as working independently within the scientific framework of the PI's laboratory.
The Haghighi Lab at Mount Sinai and the James J. Peters Bronx VA Medical Center is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms associated with the confluence of risk factors that contribute to suicidal behavior. The lab is interested in how physical and/or psychosocial stress can induce transcriptional regulatory abnormalities that influence later neuroimmune and endocrine functioning, leading to psychiatric symptoms. Physical stressors like traumatic brain injury can enhance or contribute to these abnormalities, and psychosocial stressors like childhood and combat trauma increase risk for psychopathologies and suicidal behavior. Applying both genomics and computational approaches, we undertake human postmortem and clinical studies to identify genes and genetic pathways that undergo sustained transcriptional regulatory changes in response to such environmental insults.
Some of the research interests and approaches used by the lab include:
- Utilizing novel single-cell sequencing technologies directly in postmortem human brain with the goal of uncovering dysregulated transcriptional networks associated with suicide.
- Utilizing genomics sequencing technologies in combination with FACS within both postmortem human brains of suicide victims and bloods from clinical samples of suicide attempters to identify chromatin alterations (e.g., DNA methylation via MethylC-seq, chromatin accessibility via ATAC-seq) in specific cell types including neurons, glia, monocytes, etc.
For more information and to apply, please visit: https://careers.mountsinai.org/jobs/2652054?lang=en-usb
Fatemeh Haghighi, PhD
James J. Peters VA Medical Center
Professor, Neuroscience
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
1425 Madison Ave, Floor 9, Room 9-20D
New York, NY 10029
Office: (212) 659-5903
Email: