FDA Fellowship - Computational Toxicology

About the role

The opportunity is with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Office of Translational Sciences (OTS) in Silver Spring, Maryland. CDER ensures that safe and effective drugs are available to improve public health, regulating over‑the‑counter and prescription drugs, including biological therapeutics and generics. The selected participant will work on developing quantitative structure‑activity relationship (QSAR) models, learning to harvest and interpret toxicology data, develop and apply QSAR models, and communicate results to internal and external stakeholders. Under the guidance of mentor Lidiya Stavitskaya, the fellow will gain experience in computational model development for regulatory use. The appointment is anticipated to start in July 2026, with a flexible start date, and is initially for one year, renewable subject to funding and performance. Participants receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience, must provide proof of health insurance, and must successfully complete a background investigation by the Office of Personnel Management. FDA ethics requirements and an FDA Education and Training Agreement must be fulfilled, and participants are not considered employees of FDA, DOE, or the program administrator.

Responsibilities

• Learning to develop and apply data‑mining tools
• Reviewing, extracting, and harmonizing data from literature
• Constructing and enhancing training databases for modeling purposes
• Learning to develop, validate and optimize (Q)SAR models
• Constructing chemical structure‑linked knowledge bases

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent resident status, or foreign national with acceptable immigration status (non‑U.S. citizens must meet guidelines for participation)
• Proof of health insurance
• Successful completion of a background investigation by the Office of Personnel Management (requires at least three years of U.S. residence in the past five years for non‑U.S. citizens)
• Agreement to FDA ethics requirements, including restrictions on significantly regulated organization investments and related reporting
• Completion of the FDA Education and Training Agreement within 30 days of start date

Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in a relevant field (Chemistry and Materials Sciences, Life Health and Medical Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics) received within the last five years, or currently pursuing a doctoral degree with anticipated completion by July 31, 2026
• Eligibility: U.S. citizen or having resided in the United States for at least 36 of the past 60 months (non‑consecutive months acceptable)
• Acknowledgment of having read the FDA Ethics Requirements

Schedule

Full-time.