Join our lab
Fun Fact: Corder Lab trainees have secured many independent fellowships and competetive funding:
n=1, K99/R00 Pathway-to-Independence Award (Blake Kimmey)
n=2, F32 NRSA Postdoc Fellowships (Nora McCall, Blake Kimmey)
n=4, F31 NRSA Predoc Fellowships (Jess Wojick, Lisa Wooldridge, Corinna Oswell, Sophie Rogers
n=1, F99/K00 NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience - D-SPAN (Lindsay Ejoh)
n=4, T32 Training Grants (Adrienne Jo, Sandra Poulson, Gregory Salimando, Nora McCall)
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As of August 10th, 2025 we are now accepting applications for Postdoctoral Fellows, Graduate Students, Research Technicians and Undergraduate Researchers.
Interested in joining the Corder Lab?
We welcome inquiries from postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and research staff who are excited about our mission and projects. To help us evaluate your fit and interests, please include the following in your initial message to Dr. Corder via email gcorder@upenn.edu:
Required:
Full Name
Email Address
Position of Interest (Postdoc / Graduate Student / Staff / Rotation Student)
CV or NIH Biosketch (PDF upload)
Brief Statement of Research Interests (150–300 words) — describe the neuroscience questions you’re passionate about and why you want to work in our lab.
Relevant Skills & Experience — e.g., in vivo imaging, viral vector design, electrophysiology, behavior analysis, computational modeling, histology, etc.
Example of Past Research — link or PDF of a representative publication, preprint, or project summary.
Optional but Helpful:
Preferred Start Date
Names of Potential References
Specific Corder Lab Project(s) of Interest — e.g., ACC coding of pain affect, BLA–insula/accumbens circuits, thalamocortical pain–sleep interactions, psilocybin & retrosplenial–cingulate circuits, PAG placebo analgesia, or central amygdala opioid withdrawal circuits.
The Corder Lab @ Penn will provide a dynamic research environment with exceptional resources for training in basic and translational neuroscience. Together, we will design studies that allow you to incorporate your research expertise, and to acquire the tangible and intangible skills necessary for your desired career path. You can expect that I will do all I can to make our new group an exciting, fair, and rewarding place to further your career.
Penn Graduate Students
Penn graduate students should contact Dr. Corder by email (gcorder@upenn.edu) to discuss rotation opportunities. Prospective graduate students should consider the graduate programs in Neurosciences or Pharmacology or Bioengineering.
Innovative behavioral modeling and the analysis of neural computations lie at the core of all Corder Lab projects. Specifically, our lab is developing sophisticated translational models of pain in combination with high-throughput machine learning statistical approaches for large-scale neural imaging data. Our research program will pursue the identification of the basic neural building blocks of pain perception, deconstructing their functional and anatomical integration with motivational and cognitive brain networks, and finally, decoding how neural pain information evolves after injury, with the goal of developing new strategies to treat chronic pain and opioid abuse.
Training opportunities include
in vivo Calcium imaging + optogenetics in behaving animals
Optogenetic-guided slice electrophysiology
Whole-brain neuroanatomy using tissue clearing and light-sheet microscopy
Development of novel rodent behavioral assays
We also encourage applications from candidates with electrical or biomedical engineering backgrounds who are interested in the crossroads of neuroscience and engineering to uncover how brain circuits excel at extracting information from our senses. Experience in MatLab / Python / R / Linux / TensorFlow or other deep learning platforms are highly desired.
Penn Undergraduates
Highly motivated undergraduate students that are interested in gaining lab experience and assisting with cutting-edge neuroscience projects can contact us using the form below. We ask that you send a brief statement detailing prior research experience, your scientific or medical interests, and your weekly availability during the semester and/or summer sessions.
Corder Lab | University of Pennsylvania | Translational Research Laboratory | 125 S. 31st Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
