FDA Postgraduate Research Opportunity in Therapeutic Proteins
*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.
A research opportunity is currently available in the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies (OTAT), at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Under the guidance of a mentor, the selected participant will join a research program that broadly studies the characteristics and immune responses to therapeutic proteins that carry non-synonymous and synonymous mutations. The participant will collaborate with experimental biologists to purify these proteins and then test them for conformation (using limited proteolytic digestion, Circular Dichroism (CD)), immunogenicity risk (by MAPPS assay or T-cell proliferation assay) and functionality.
The following articles in the literature provide examples of the range of research performed in our group:
Katneni, U.K., Liss, A., Holcomb, D., Katagiri, N., Hunt, R.C., Bar, H., Ismail, A., Komar, A.A. and Kimchi-Sarfaty, C.: Splicing dysregulation contributes to the pathogenicity of several F9 exonic point variants. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine E-published; 2019; 00:e840, DOI: 10.1002/mgg3.840). 2019.
Hettiarachchi G.K., Katneni U.K., Hunt R.C., Athey J.C., Kames J.M., Bar H., Sauna Z.E., McGill J.R., Ibla J.C. and Kimchi-Sarfaty C.: Translational and transcriptional responses in human primary hepatocytes under hypoxia. American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00331.2018.
Katneni U.K., Ibla J.C., Hunt R.C., Schiller T. and Kimchi-Sarfaty C.: Von Willebrand Factor/ADAMTS13 Interactions at Birth: Implications for Thrombosis in the Neonatal Period. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 17(3):429-440, 2019.
Alexaki A., Kames J., Holcomb D.D., Athey J., Santana-Quintero L.V., Lam P.V.N., Hamasaki-Katagiri N., Osipova E., Simonyan V., Bar H., Komar A.A., and Kimchi-Sarfaty C.: Codon and Codon-Pair Usage Tables (CoCoPUTs): Facilitating Genetic Variation Analyses and Recombinant Gene Design. Journal of Molecular Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2019.04.021. 2019.
Alexaki A., Hettiarachchi G.K., Athey J., Katneni U.K., Simhadri V., Hamasaki-Katagiri N., Nanavaty P., Lin B., Takeda K., Freedberg D., Monroe D., McGill J.R., Peters R., Kames J., Holcomb D.D., Hunt R.C., Gelinas A., Janjic N., DiCuccio M., Bar H., Komar A.A., and Kimchi-Sarfaty C.: Effects of codon optimization on protein translation and structure: Implications for protein therapeutics. 2019. Scientific Reports, in press.
Qualifications
The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a bachelor's degree in one of the relevant fields. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date.
Preferred skills:
- Experience in the purification and characterization of proteins in mammalian systems
- Basic genetic engineering and molecular biology skills
- Experience in both experimental methods in protein chemistry and data analysis
- Experience in basic lab work, such as sterile tissue culture techniques, purification, Western blotting
- Willingness to learn new technologies and methods, such as ribosome profiling
This opportunity is available to US citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR) only.
If you have questions, send an email to ORISE.FDA.CBER@orau.org. Please include the reference code for this opportunity (FDA-CBER-2020-0014) in your email.