Newborn Screening Bioinformatics and Data Analytics Fellowship (multiple locations)

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is pleased to announce that applications are now open to become a Newborn Screening Bioinformatics and Data Analytics Fellow. Please apply at https://app.wizehive.com/appform/menu/nbsbioinformatics2021. Applications will be open until Saturday, February 29, 2020. 

Newborn Screening (NBS) programs are faced with new challenges due to the expansion in the number of newborn screening diseases together with the adoption of more sophisticated biochemical and molecular technologies used to improve disease detection for newborns with heritable diseases. These challenges include accurate interpretation of complex biomarker profiles, development of analytic and interpretative tools for genetic testing and effective approaches for laboratory data management. In addition there is a need for harmonization of results across complex testing platforms that would greatly aid in biomarker result interpretation.

As we move forward to incorporate more complex testing, the analysis of newborn screening test results will require 21st century data analytic solutions to improve the positive predictive value of test algorithms while reducing the number of false positives.

To address this unmet need in newborn screening laboratories, APHL, in collaboration with the CDC​ Newborn Screening and Molecular Biology Branch​, is offering exciting fellowship opportunities for graduates of bioinformatics programs. This fellowship aims to train and prepare bioinformaticians to apply their expertise within public health and design tools to aid existing public health personnel in the use of bioinformatics. Its mission is to provide a high quality training experience for fellows while providing workforce capacity to the public health laboratory community. The Newborn Screening Bioinformatics and Data Analytics Fellowship places graduates of bioinformatics or biostatistics programs in Newborn Screening public health laboratories to utilize their skills to conduct specialized NGS and data analytics projects for certain RUSP disorders. Projects may involve utilizing bioinformatics skills for mining complex genetic data for biomarkers, developing and validating pipelines and tools for NGS and Sanger analysis, or comparing NBS results from unsatisfactory specimens to their matched satisfactory repeat specimens.

For more information including details on how to apply and relevant materials, please visit the APHL-CDC Newborn Screening Bioinformatics Fellowship page.