Head of Clinical Science

Convergent Research; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Arbor Neuroscience, a nonprofit focused on translating neuromodulation research, is seeking a leader to shape how the organization defines applied human neuroscience and its clinical impact. The role will define the human neuroscience program, guide study design for functional ultrasound imaging, and coordinate with collaborations such as ARIA with international partners.

You will help determine which conditions and symptoms to target and how success is measured as Arbor builds its experimental

Responsibilities

• Lead how Arbor approaches applied human neuroscience and clinical impact.
• Define and expand the human neuroscience program, building from a small intramural program and UK ARIA collaboration.
• Oversee studies starting with functional ultrasound imaging and later paired with focused ultrasound neuromodulation.

Job description

About Arbor Neuroscience

(formerly Forest Neurotech)

Arbor is a nonprofit research organization working on one of the hardest open problems in clinical neuroscience: how to change brain circuits by design.

Millions of people with depression, chronic pain, and other brain disorders have no treatment that works. Modulating activity in the brain circuits underlying their symptoms - with electrical stimulation, focused ultrasound, or magnetic stimulation - can work spectacularly well. But it doesn't work reliably, and we can't predict who it will help.

That's what Arbor aims to fix. The starting point is a new class of experiment: intervene, measure how the circuit responds, track the symptom, and repeat in the same individual over months. We're building the necessary experimental platform. It currently includes the Forest 1 ultrasound system, which works like a wearable functional MRI, but with higher resolution. The system images activity across large brain volumes, including deep brain structures, and will soon stimulate as well. We are also adding electrode-based interfaces in animal studies. From these data, we'll build models to make neuromodulation predictable.

Arbor is a Focused Research Organization within the Convergent Research family, and the new name for Forest Neurotech. We're a mission-focused nonprofit, doing multidisciplinary translational work that doesn't fit in a lab or on a company roadmap. We have the funding to run the first phase, and we're a small team - the people we hire now will shape what Arbor becomes.

The Role

This is a broad role, and a foundational one for the organization. We're looking for someone to lead how Arbor approaches applied human neuroscience and how we think about clinical impact: which conditions we work on, which symptoms we try to move, and what it would mean to succeed.

The initial focus will be on defining and expanding our human neuroscience program - building from a small intramural program and an active UK collaboration with ARIA. The studies will start with functional ultrasound imaging, later paired with focused ultrasound neuromodulation.

Participants are people with a sonolucent cranial implant, usually placed after surgery for traumatic brain injury, stroke, or a tumor. These individuals often have comorbid conditions that neuromodulation may be able to improve. Designing