*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

A research opportunity is currently available with the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria (DPDM), within the Center for Global Health (CGH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) located in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major operation components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC works to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

As part of the Advanced Molecular Detection collaboration between the Biotechnology Core Facility Branch (BCFB) of the Division of Scientific Resources and Parasitic Diseases Branch (PDB) of the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, a bioinformatic approach will be developed for identification of novel antigen targets in human pathogenic parasites of public health importance. This approach will involve eukaryotic genome and proteome assembly and annotation, followed by antigen discovery. Data from this evaluation will allow for identify candidate peptides for detection of antibody responses to human parasitic diseases.

The participant will collaborate closely with BCFB to learn novel bioinformatic processes to identify diagnostic markers for parasitic diseases, including multi-chromosome genome assembly, annotation, curation, and proteomic data mining. The participant will learn alongside an interdisciplinary team validating and implementing these bioinformatic approaches for parasitic serological assay development and related project deliverables.

Under the guidance of a mentor, the participant will be involved in the following training activities:

• Eukaryotic genome assembly and characterization
• Automated annotation and manual curation
• Development, validation and implementation of bioinformatics workflows for streamlined analysis, quality control, and curation of whole-genome sequencing and proteomic data
• Identification of candidate diagnostic markers to differentiate between species and strains for clinical diagnostic application
• Contribution to manuscripts and NCBI data submission

If you have questions, send an email to ORISE.CDC.CGH@orau.org. Please include the reference code for this opportunity (CDC-CGH-2021-0048) in your email.