JIFSAN a joint program of the University of Maryland and the US FDA is seeking a full time Post Doctoral Associate position The incumbent will participate in applied regulatory research for targeted and non targeted DNA based identification methods to target identification of plant based economic adulteration toxic species or other botanicals of FDA relevance in foods and dietary supplements The incumbent will collaboratively focus primarily on using next generation sequencing data to add to existing sequence databases and design assays to target species in foods and dietary supplements based on these sequences There will be an additional focus on developing or using bioinformatic tools The incumbent will receive training in validation of molecular based species identification tools to stand alone and to complement established chemical methods Duties will also include monitoring instrument performance metrics in lab quality assurance and control programs as well as providing routine instrument maintenance and calibration service Completed research studies are expected to be published in peer reviewed journals This position will report to the JIFSAN offices in College Park MD and will conduct work from its Food Safety LabSpecific Aims1 Generate andor process sequence data for plants deemed to be of interest Sequencing will be carried out using the Illumina Miseq or Nextseq as well as other next generation sequencing platforms Vouchered and taxonomically identified source materials will be obtained from in house and external collections and collaborators2 Assist in the development of primers for DNA based assays used in the analysis of complexmixtures for the presence of plant species particularly toxic species of interest3 Assist in the development of data analysis software or pipelines for next generation sequencing data and software based approaches for the identification of plants contaminants and adulterants in foods and dietary supplements4 Present data at scientific meetings and publish research findings in peer reviewed journals Responsibilities Generate andor process NGS sequence data from authenticated plant specimen of FDA interest provided by the US FDA 60 Develop andor use bioinformatic tools to identify plants in foods and dietary supplements 20 Develop non targeted and targeted methods to identify plant species in foods and dietary supplements 10 Present data at meetings and publish research findings in peer reviewed journals 10