Job Description:

Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc., (AMA) is seeking to hire a Postdoctoral Researcher for our Hampton, Virginia location.  The individual selected for this position will work on-site at NASA Langley Research Center supporting the Multi‐model Ensemble Risk Assessment (MERA) project team in the Space Radiation Group at NASA Langley Research Center.  The MERA project develops tools to assess long duration, deep space exploration mission, and space radiation health risks in support of NASA’s space exploration goals. The main health risks include carcinogenesis, cardiovascular disease, acute risks associated with a solar particle event, and the possibility of both in‐flight and long‐term central nervous system decrements.

Tasks may include reading and interpreting relevant scientific literature, accessing databases and data mining, integrating multiple data sources relevant to radiation risk assessment, developing computational models to predict health outcomes, and collaboration with MERA team members on related projects. There is some flexibility in the topic of research associated with this announcement and is dependent on the candidate’s interests and experience.  Potential projects are as follows:

 1)       Development of models for tissue-specific cancers associated with mission space radiation exposure that incorporate individual risk factors. This project requires evaluation of clinical prediction tools, including those based on polygenic risk scores, for high-risk radiogenic cancers. The incumbent will interface with healthcare researchers/modelers/data scientists to evaluate and integrate appropriate tools into the NASA space cancer risk assessment framework. The model may include assessment of enhanced surveillance on space radiation associated risks.

2)      Research and development of biologically based mechanistic models of cell and molecular processes related to radiation carcinogenesis for high-risk tissues (e.g., lung, breast, colon), and demonstration of the model for applications involving prediction of impact of individual radiation sensitivity and/or for use in evaluation of targeted medical countermeasures and other risk mitigation approaches.  For example, a possible project is the development of a mathematical model of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and the hematopoietic system, which can be used to evaluate longitudinal dynamics of CHIP mutations under pressure from environmental stressors such as radiotherapy and space radiation exposure, for predicting health outcomes in CHIP carriers, and for evaluation of mitigation approaches.

3)      Development of novel methods for extrapolating/scaling cardiovascular disease or cancer risk predictions based on terrestrial radiation epidemiology to the space radiation environment using available ground-based space radiobiology datasets. This project requires the identification of relevant omics or other signatures representing human disease severity, such as those based on quantitative pathway responses, which can be used as prognostic biomarkers for radiation-induced disease.

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