Michael J. Fox Foundation and Weston Brain Institute Computational Science Fellowship

Updated: 11 months ago
Location: Vancouver UBC, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Deadline: The position may have been removed or expired!

Neurodegenerative diseases of aging are among the least understood and most undertreated disorders. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are placing a large and increasing burden on society with social and economic costs expected to rise significantly within a generation.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Weston Brain Institute Computational Science Fellowship program is a collaboration between the two organizations with the goal of supporting research that will apply sophisticated computational approaches and expertise to advance therapeutic development for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.


Program Overview

Please refer to the Request for Applications (RFA) document for more information.

Goal:  To support research that will apply sophisticated computational approaches and expertise to advance therapeutic development for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.

Funding: Two 18-month fellowships of US$150,000 each for salary support and benefits will be provided for a fellow to work in the lab of the awarded researchers.

Applicant Eligibility:  Principal investigators from the Toronto or Montreal area with an interest in computational analyses and neurodegenerative diseases of aging are welcomed to apply.  Canadian-based researchers working outside of these geographic locations should contact the Institute before applying.

Principal investigators must hold a position at or above the level of Assistant professor at a CRA qualified donee institution in Canada.

Prior knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases of aging is not required for the fellowship, yet comfort with biomedical data is strongly preferred.  Preferred backgrounds include:

  • Ph.D. in computational modeling, statistics, computer science, biostatistics, data science, bioinformatics, computational biology or related area
  • Interest in biomedical data on neurodegenerative diseases of aging
  • Demonstrated fluency in programming languages (R, Python, Matlab, SAS, etc)

Project Eligibility:  Projects must support development of a therapeutic and/or tool to accelerate therapeutic development, e.g.,

  • Computer modeling to uncover new biomarkers, or select therapeutic candidates
  • Use of longitudinal, multi-modal open data to identify or validate disease progression models or factors that influence complex clinical outcomes (e.g., rates and disease subtypes)

Please refer to What We Fund for Institute definitions of neurodegenerative diseases of aging, translational research, therapeutic, and tool.

The Institute welcomes additional inquiries about this program, including whether a potential idea is in scope.



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