The Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, affiliated with the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, is recruiting candidates for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research. Candidates are invited to apply for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship position working with Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Amery Treble-Barna, PhD. The goal of the position is to train the fellow toward independence in the conduct of rigorous clinical and translational research in pediatric TBI. Start date of Summer or Fall 2027.

The fellow will have the opportunity to pursue research across the following complementary areas:

• Epigenetic, genetic, and protein biomarkers of pediatric TBI occurrence and neurobehavioral recovery
• Interplay of psychosocial risk, social determinants of health, and epigenetic contributors to neurobehavioral recovery after pediatric TBI
• Rehabilitation service utilization as an understudied modifier of pediatric TBI outcomes, characterized through caregiver report on a newly validated measure and national insurance claims data
• Physical activity and epigenetic mechanisms of neurobehavioral recovery after pediatric TBI, leveraging wearable accelerometry and machine learning to characterize activity and predict recovery
• Human-centered design and community based participatory research approaches to co-develop physical activity interventions that promote neurobehavioral recovery after pediatric TBI

Fellows will have the opportunity to:
1) Lead first-authored manuscripts from multiple pre-existing datasets and biorepositories
2) Collect, analyze, and publish data from multiple ongoing NIH-funded studies
3) Collaborate on multi-institutional research projects, facilitating networking within the field
4) Pursue intra- and extra-mural grant funding with mentorship from the PI
5) Participate in didactic seminars/workshops on career development and preparing for faculty positions

Candidates with strong writing skills for leading first-authored publications and/or strong analytical/R programming skills are especially encouraged to apply. Candidates interested in a fully remote position will also be considered.

PI & Research Program: Dr. Treble-Barna’s research aims to account for unexplained heterogeneity in outcomes following pediatric TBI with the long-term goal of moving the field towards precision medicine and health equity to improve individual prognostication, identify novel targets for treatment development, and reduce outcome disparities. Dr. Treble-Barna has trained in evidence-based mentoring and is an experienced faculty developer and professional coach. She applies these skillsets in her mentoring and has mentored several postdoctoral scholars to independent faculty positions with funded career development awards.

Environment: The fellow will have the opportunity to interact and receive mentorship from multidisciplinary faculty from psychology and neuropsychology, physiatry, nursing, critical care medicine, pediatrics, epidemiology, genetics, and biostatistics. Formal postdoctoral seminars and workshops are provided across the PM&R Department and the School of Medicine, with the goal of preparing fellows for the next steps of their career. Intramural funding opportunities are available to support fellow research projects.

This position is based out of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville Campus. The issuance of satisfactory Pennsylvania State Child Protection Clearances and TB testing will be required upon hire. (A preemployment TB test is utilized to pre-emptively prevent the spread of tuberculosis to medical and healthcare professionals as well as patients).
To Apply: Candidates must have obtained their doctoral degree by the start date. Candidates with doctoral degrees in Psychology/Neuropsychology, Neuroscience, Rehabilitation Science, Epidemiology, Statistics, Nursing, Public Health, or related fields are encouraged to apply to Requisition #26006059 at https://www.join.pitt.edu/. Salary is commensurate with NIH guidelines, and benefits are competitive.

The University of Pittsburgh is an equal opportunity employer / disability / veteran.