Intern - Chemoinformatics
- Industry
Health, Wellness and Fitness
- About Us
Amway is an entrepreneur-led health and wellness company based in Ada, Michigan, U.S. We are committed to helping people live better, healthier lives across more than 100 countries and territories worldwide. Our top-selling brands are Nutrilite™, Artistry™ and XS™.
Department / Division: Sciences Department/NVSPAS
Hourly Range: $20.90-$33.96
Location: Buena Park, CA (Onsite or Hybrid)
What’s special about this team:
The Sciences team within Amway conducts in silico, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo research programs to fuel the innovation pipeline for Amway’s global Heath & Wellness brands. Specifically, the group where this role resides conducts foundational skin and nutrition ingredient research, identifies & develops and applies these to commercialize differentiated ingredient and product technologies for Amway’s consumer skincare and nutrition product categories. This team partners with internal innovation teams and external leaders from academia and industry to bring new benefit-driven and experiential products to our customers.
How would an intern contribute to the team’s success:
Over the past 1-2 years, there has been a significant increase in requests from our cross-functional teams for in silico screening. The intern could contribute in the following ways:
- Analyzing Screening Data: Specifically, the intern would play a pivotal role in the analysis of screening data related to various molecular targets linked to sleep, brain health, and aging. While these targets have undergone screening, the analysis has been impeded by bandwidth constraints. This untapped data could hold significant business potential.
- Optimizing Phytochemical Library and Expanding Resources: Our in-house repository of 50,000 phytochemicals is a crucial resource. The intern's involvement would include the essential task of structuring this repository more effectively. This would encompass systematic categorization based on compound classes and properties. Such classification not only streamlines our screening workflows but also heightens the precision of our research outcomes. Moreover, I have identified several databases, including COCONUT and LOTUS, from which novel compounds can be sourced and integrated into our library. This initiative aims to augment the size and diversity of our in-house repository, which is a crucial factor in fortifying the robustness of our in-silico models. In essence, the intern's role encompasses both the optimization of existing resources and the expansion of our data repository.
An example of a typical project would be:
Please see below an example of a project. As mentioned earlier, the first part of the project (Aim 1) is completed. The intern would conduct Aim 2 of the project. On successful completion of the project, we will have high potential botanicals ready to be validated for some of our high-priority projects.
Project 1: Identifying the botanicals with sleep and brain ageing benefits using in silico approach
Aim 1: Large-scale screening of neuronal molecular targets, such as beta-Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), Glutamate Receptors (NMDA and AMPA), Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), Dopamine Receptors (D1 and D2), Acetylcholinesterase, Monoamine oxidase, and GSK3β (Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Beta).
Aim 2: Utilize cheminformatics methods (such as pharmacophore modeling, docking or ligand-based screening) to identify top 50 phytochemicals for each target.
Required skills and background:
Desired Major:
- Bioinformatics, cheminformatics, statistics/computer science (with a background in biological sciences or chemistry), or related field.
Desired Class Year: Undergraduate (Senior level) or Masters
- Senior or Masters (first or final year) or PhD level (1st or 2nd year)
Desired Skills:
- Demonstrated expertise in shell scripting, Linux clusters, cloud computing, and a practical knowledge of programming languages, preferably Python.
*Actual compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including skill set and class year.
Amway offers:
- paid relocation(bonus for relocating, paid transportation assistance for students that need it, and paid housing) on top of the hourly rate mentioned above.