Summer 2026 - Statistical Genetics Internship

Role Summary

The Summer 2026 Statistical Genetics Intern will leverage advanced statistical genetics approaches to prioritize potential drug targets for less common neurologic diseases, including dementia with Lewy bodies, Frontotemporal dementia, ALS, and related neuro traits such as sleep disturbance. The intern will perform Mendelian randomization and colocalization analyses using publicly available GWAS summary statistics for disease risk and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteomics to identify putative causal genes. Additionally, the role involves utilizing large language models (LLMs) to further refine and prioritize genetically supported targets by evaluating their relevance to disease-specific biological functions and informing experimental validation strategies. This full-time internship will take place June - August 2026.

Responsibilities

• Generation of results from MR and coloc analyses, prioritizing significant genes.
• Evaluation of top genes for feasibility as drug targets.
• The primary deliverable will be for a single disease, with a stretch goal of conducting analysis for multiple diseases and comparing overlap across traits.

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate should have a strong background in statistical genetics methodology including GWAS and post-GWAS gene prioritization methods such as Mendelian randomization and colocalization.
• They should also be familiar with working in a unix environment and be proficient a programming language such as R or python.
• Ideally the candidate should have some prior experience with neurologic disease research.
• The candidate should also possess a keen interest in broadly understanding using statistical genetics for drug discovery in a larger context, combining factors which point to strong genetic support for a target with factors that make a strong genetic target likely to be selected for validation by our biology colleagues.
• All candidates must be authorized to work in the US both at the time of hire and for the duration of their employment. Immigration or visa sponsorship is not available for this position.