EPA Genetic Susceptibility Factors for Chemical Exposures Fellowship
*Applications may be reviewed on a rolling-basis and this posting could close before the deadline. Click here for information about the selection process.
EPA Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is available at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development (ORD), Center for Public Health Environmental Assessment (CPHEA), Public Health and Integrated Toxicology Division (PHITD) located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Research Project: The EPA National Program in Chemical Safety and Sustainability project area in Adverse Outcome Discovery and Development has recently been extended to include New Approach Methodologies in computational toxicological methods in response to the EPA Administrator's directive to reduce animal testing. The research participant may contribute to this effort for the specific project "Computational modeling approaches and case study validation to identify genetic-based susceptibility factors to environmental chemical exposures".
The research participant will be part of a collaborative, international team of computational scientists while being mentored by Dr. Mortensen at the US EPA. Dr. Mortensen's current collaborations, where learning objectives for the participant can be defined, include ongoing projects with collaborators at the Perlman School of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, at the University of Pennsylvania focused on discovering clinical endpoints of toxicity via graph machine learning and semantic data analysis; and projects with collaborators at the Department of Bioinformatics (BiGCaT) at the University of Maastrict, NL involving Research Description Framework mapping for adverse outcome pathways and nanomaterials of concern to the US EPA.
Learning Objectives:
- Learning about computational toxicology
- Understanding the Adverse Outcome Pathway construct and how it can be used to facilitate computational toxicology methods and models
- Conducting semantic mapping of adverse outcomes to accepted ontologies
- Conducting statistical analysis of the relationships between populations in the absence of case control data
- Conducting statistical analysis to understand toxicity and risk of environmental chemicals to humans
- Understanding how molecular data can contribute to understanding of biological mechanism
- Understanding how progress in computational toxicology can reduce animal testing
- Learning novel data analysis and display applications and their implementation
- Collaborating with a team to write and edit scientific manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals
Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Holly Mortensen (mortensen.holly@epa.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).
Anticipated Appointment Start Date: September 2020. All start dates are flexible and vary depending on numerous factors. Click here for detailed information about start dates.
Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year and may be renewed up to four additional years upon EPA recommendation and subject to availability of funding.
Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.
Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. Click here for detailed information about full-time stipends.
EPA Security Clearance: Completion of a successful background investigation by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is required for an applicant to be on-boarded at EPA.
ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and EPA. Participants do not become employees of EPA, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.
Questions: Please see the FAQ section of our website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email EPArpp@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity (EPA-ORD-CPHEA-PHITD-2020-05).