Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)

IEIDD is focused on developing medical countermeasures for pandemic influenza and emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19. In addition, IEIDD prepares for a pandemic influenza public health emergency by managing a stockpile of pre-pandemic vaccines and conducting clinical trials to understand the best of the pre-pandemic vaccines in advance of an influenza PHE.

Therapeutics Branch

The therapeutics branch is focused on achieving new FDA-approvals of treatments for influenza and emerging infectious diseases. A major focus of the branch is finding treatments for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) by focusing on threat-agnostic treatments for severe outcomes of infectious disease. In addition, the branch is investigating pre-exposure prophylaxis options for both seasonal and pandemic influenza.

A fellow joining the branch would work closely with project officers to learn about all aspects of product development including manufacturing development, clinical trial design, critical assessment of nonclinical studies, and creation and editing of regulatory documents of specific products. In addition, the fellow would be tasked with literature reviews, therapeutic landscape development, manuscript writing, workshop coordination, and review of proposals each of which will be tailored to the selected Fellow’s experience level while remaining true to the intent of the opportunity and allowing for growth.

Vaccine Development Branch

The mission of the vaccine development branch is to advance the development and FDA approval of the best vaccine products to mitigate future outbreaks of pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases. This program promotes rapid vaccine development technologies, timely regulatory clearance, and robust domestic manufacturing capacity.

A fellow joining the branch would work closely with project officers on programs developing innovative new strategies for influenza and emerging infectious disease vaccines. A fellow would have the opportunity to learn about all aspects of product development including manufacturing, clinical trial design, critical assessment of nonclinical studies, and creation and editing of regulatory documents of specific products. In addition, the fellow would have the opportunity to assist with performing literature reviews, write manuscripts, perform landscape reviews, and coordinate workshops and interagency collaborative meetings in accordance with Branch needs and the Fellow’s individual interests.

Vaccine Branch

With the recent outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, Zika, and now COVID-19, BARDA is playing more of a role as a response agency, helping to address public health needs by advancing the development of MCMs. Leveraging BARDA’s recent experience in helping to push the Ebola vaccine, ERVEBO®, to licensure, we are working hard to help address the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are still CBRN threats for which we do not have licensed vaccines. The fellowship within the Vaccine Branch will primarily support vaccine development efforts within the CBRN Vaccine Branch by coordinating activities related to market research into vaccine candidate pipelines for emerging viral threats. The fellow will conduct literature searches and market research, as well as participate in communications with interagency partners. Other opportunities will include providing technical support for current CBRN Vaccine programs for smallpox, anthrax, and viral hemorrhagic fever viruses. This will include technical assessments to support the CBRN Vaccine program mission.

Antivirals and Antitoxins Branch

The Antivirals and Antitoxins Branch is focused on the development of therapeutic medical countermeasures that can be used to respond to public health emergencies caused by Anthrax, Botulinum, Smallpox, and selected filoviruses, including Ebola, Marburg, and Sudan viruses. The selected fellow will join a group of experienced scientists tasked with managing a portfolio of complex advanced research and development initiatives to augment and improve on existing capabilities and fulfill unmet needs across the Branch’s threat space. Current active areas of interest in the Branch include small molecule antivirals with efficacy against filoviruses and, ideally, other RNA viruses.

A selected fellow’s activities will align closely with those of existing government personnel to provide the fellow with a clear understanding of AVAT efforts. The fellow will gain experience in medical countermeasure development, including manufacturing, nonclinical, clinical, and regulatory components. Primary activities will include literature reviews, meeting or workshop coordination, market research, portfolio evaluation, communication with interagency and industry partners, manuscript development, and program management, each of which will be tailored to the selected fellow’s experience level while remaining true to the intent of the opportunity and allowing for growth.

Alliance Office

The fellow selected for the Alliance Office will have the opportunity to join a team of scientists that are passionate about developing new approaches for vaccine and therapeutic medical countermeasures and establishing cutting-edge programs that fill gaps within BARDA’s preparedness and response strategies. Activities will align closely with those of existing programs such as Beyond the Needle, Vaccines on Demand, drug repurposing programs, as well as unique programs that leverage open innovation/prize challenge or artificial intelligence approaches to accelerate MCM development. The Fellow may have opportunities to assist with designing and administering prize challenges, managing new programs, as well as supporting the development of new cross-BARDA strategies. The ideal Fellow would have experience in immunology, vaccinology, virology, clinical trials, or artificial intelligence; however, the most important characteristic is a willingness to take on new challenges and topics that are beyond the Fellow’s area of expertise.

Catalyst Office

The Catalyst Office at BARDA DRIVe is a team of innovators, entrepreneurs and commercialization experts who help de-risk the commercial pathways for technologies from the bench-side to BARDA and beyond by fostering the health security innovation ecosystem with several public private partnership programs including BARDA Ventures, BARDA Accelerator Network and Blue Knight partnership with J&J. The fellowship offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with cross-functional teams, gain hands-on experience, and drive innovation in a fast-paced environment. The fellow will gain an in-depth understanding of medical countermeasure (MCM) product development and commercialization and will have opportunities to support the incubation and acceleration of early-stage innovation and venture capital investments. The fellow will also provide technical, scientific, and business acumen support to complex problems, including understanding the power of business intelligence for strategic decision-making and leveraging data analytics tools and techniques to extract meaningful insights. We are looking for someone who is entrepreneurial, collaborative, and willing to learn and grow. Experience in entrepreneurship, product development and commercialization, incubators and accelerators is a plus.

Frontiers Office

The selected Fellow will join a group of experienced scientists tasked with managing a portfolio of complex advanced research and development initiatives to augment and improve on existing capabilities and fulfill unmet needs across the Branch’s threat space. Activities will align closely with those of existing personnel to provide the Fellow with an in-depth understanding of aspects of medical countermeasure development, primarily in digital health and diagnostic tools. Specifically, programs Lab at Home, ImmuneChip+, NGS-based agnostic diagnostics and Digital MCM offer opportunities for engagement, project management, and programmatic and strategic planning. Additionally, the Fellow may have the opportunity to be involved with new program development. Primary activities will include literature reviews, market research, portfolio evaluation, communication with interagency and industry partners, project oversight, and program management, each of which will be tailored to the selected Fellow’s experience level while remaining true to the intent of the opportunity and allowing for growth. The Frontiers Office team is especially interested in hosting a Fellow with graduate-level expertise (or higher) in artificial intelligence, next generation sequencing, bioinformatics, data analytics or sensor development, or medical school training, but other areas of expertise will also be considered. 

Launch Office

An ORISE Fellow supporting this office would have an opportunity to build and de-risk new strategies for DRIVe, including navigating novel regulatory frameworks for medical countermeasures, generating clinical evidence and data driven approaches for evaluating efficacy and supporting adoption of such products. The office has three research programs, Host Based Diagnostics, Host Directed Therapeutics and Proactive immunity focused on advancing products in clinical development, in addition to an ecosystem program on decentralized clinical trials. The fellow would assist with evaluation of technologies and proposed approaches for medical countermeasure development and pandemic preparedness as well as assist with program management of ongoing contacts. There is also an opportunity for the fellow to support data driven approaches to inform decision making on MCMs. A fellow with expertise in immunology, cell and molecular biology, decentralized healthcare, health data analytics, or clinical studies would be desired.