FDA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Glycobiology

Organization
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Reference Code
FDA-CBER-2020-0047
How to Apply

A complete application consists of:      

All documents must be in English or include an official English translation.

If you have questions, send an email to ORISE.FDA.CBER@orau.org. Please include the reference code for this opportunity in your email.

Application Deadline
11/30/2020 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Description

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

A research opportunity is currently available with the Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR), at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Silver Spring, Maryland.

This research opportunity will be within the Laboratory of Bacterial Polysaccharides with the goal of using recombinant technologies, metabolic engineering and/ synthetic biology as tools to improve the understanding of glycoconjugate vaccine synthesis and immunology. The selected participant will receive mentoring on fulfilling the project, which will also include collaboration with investigators within and external to the FDA. The participant will be studying Glycoengineered Outer Membrane Vesicles (geOMV) as an alternative platform to generate glycoconjugate vaccines that target encapsulated pathogens. The participant will generate a prototype expression system to reconstitute bacterial polysaccharides (e.g. capsule, O-antigen) in Escherichia coli, and test and evaluate the immune response of the purified geOMV.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: January 4, 2021

This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and FDA. The initial appointment is for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of FDA contingent on the availability of funds. The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. The appointment is full-time at FDA in the Silver Spring, Maryland, area. Participants do not become employees of FDA, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits.

Completion of a successful background investigation by the Office of Personnel Management is required for an applicant to be on-boarded at FDA.  OPM can complete a background investigation only for individuals, including non-US Citizens, who have resided in the US for a total of three of the past five years.

FDA requires ORISE participants to read and sign their FDA Education and Training Agreement within 30 days of his/her start date, setting forth the conditions and expectations for his/her educational appointment at the agency.  This agreement covers such topics as the following:

  • Non-employee nature of the ORISE appointment;
  • Prohibition on ORISE Fellows performing inherently governmental functions;
  • Obligation of ORISE Fellows to convey all necessary rights to the FDA regarding intellectual property conceived or first reduced to practice during their fellowship;
  • The fact that research materials and laboratory notebooks are the property of the FDA;
  • ORISE fellow’s obligation to protect and not to further disclose or use non-public information.
Qualifications

The qualified candidate should have received a doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields, or be currently pursuing the degree and will reach completion by the appointment start date. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date.

Preferred skills:

  • Biochemistry and molecular biology methodology, such as designing and cloning plasmid constructs, bacterial and tissue cultural techniques, recombinant protein expression and purification, PAGE/Western blot protein analysis and performing respective functional / binding assays
  • Knowledge of glycobiology and mass spectrometry
Eligibility Requirements
  • Degree: Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or anticipated to be received by 1/4/2021 11:59:00 PM.
  • Discipline(s):
    • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (12 )
    • Environmental and Marine Sciences (1 )
    • Life Health and Medical Sciences (45 )