| *Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis. A research opportunity is available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Northeast Area (NEA) and Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory (ABBL) located in Beltsville, Maryland. This is a joint project between the Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory and Northeast Area Bioinformatics. Under the guidance of a mentor, the participant will be involved in two projects: In ABBL: The objective of the project is to determine the effect of the microbiome on growth performance in chickens. This project provides a great opportunity for the participant to expand their knowledge base and develop a variety of skills pertinent to his or hers future professional career. The participant will be involved in: 1) metagenomic data analysis using Qiime2, Mothur, CLC Genomic workbench, R or Calypso; 2) pipeline development to analyze avian microbiome; 3) microbiome function analysis using PICRUST, and 4) metatranscriptomics analysis. In NEA Bioinformatics group: 1) possible opportunity to participate in annotating genes and sequence assembly in a completed fungal or bacterial genomes; 2) possible opportunity to contribute to building an interface for a USDA/ARS collection with a MySQL back-end; 3) learn activities in a computerized environment such as backing up files, formatting files, and preparing files for analysis, usually in a Linux environment; 4) learn general bioinformatics activities such as but not limited to sequence alignment, assembly, phylogeny, annotation, transcriptomics, RNAseq etc.; 5) utilize web pages and graphics; and 6) collaborate with the mentor to prepare user manuals and bioinformatics pipelines. Anticipated Appointment Start Date: September 1, 2020 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 ARS. The initial appointment is for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of ARS and is contingent on the availability of funds. The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. The annual stipend rate will be up to $55,000. A health insurance allowance of up to $5,678 and a science and research travel allowance up to $1,500 will also be provided. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE. The appointment is full-time at ARS in the Beltsville, Maryland, area. Participants do not become employees of USDA, ARS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. For more information about the ARS Research Participation Program, please visit the Program Website. |
