FDA Influenza Immunity and Vaccination Postdoctoral Fellowship

Organization
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Reference Code
FDA-CBER-2020-0051
How to Apply

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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
9/30/2020 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Description

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

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

Serum contains many soluble factors representative of immune functions such as cytokines and antibodies. Vaccination and or infections can change these soluble factors for good or bad. The goal of this project is to investigate how vaccination and or infection induced immune responses correlate with protection against infectious diseases such as influenza (or COVID19) using human cohorts. The participant will be involved in assessing cytokines, antibodies and other soluble factors in human serum samples and identifying biomarkers that are associated with protection. The project will also investigate the potential roles of other factors such as age and vaccination history in immunity and protection against influenza (or COVID19). The participant will have ample opportunity to learn various technical skills in virology and human serology in support of vaccine development, including (but not limited to) plaque assay, hemagglutination assay, hemagglutination inhibition assay, luminex multiplex assay, etc.  

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: August 3, 2020

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 be currently pursuing or have received a doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date. 

Preferred skills:

  • Designing and cloning plasmid constructs
  • Bacterial and tissue cultural techniques
  • Recombinant protein expression and purification
  • PAGE/Western blot protein analysis
  • Antibody functional/binding assays
Eligibility Requirements
  • Degree: Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or currently pursuing.
  • Discipline(s):
    • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (2 )
    • Life Health and Medical Sciences (11 )
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