EPA Advancing Human Thyroid NAMs Endocrine Disruption Screening

* Applications may be reviewed on a rolling-basis and this posting could close before the deadline.

A research opportunity is currently available at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), located in Durham, North Carolina. The participant will receive training in a laboratory located in Research Triangle Park, NC office and travel to Washington, DC once a year for a debriefing.

The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment. EPA works to ensure that:
Americans have clean air, land and water;
National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information;
Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively and as Congress intended;
Environmental stewardship is integral to U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
All parts of society have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
Contaminated lands and toxic sites are cleaned up; and chemicals in the marketplace are reviewed for safety.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) conducts solutions-driven research to rapidly evaluate the potential health hazards of environmental chemicals and accelerate the pace of chemical risk assessment. US EPA develops and implements in vitro and in silico new approach methods (NAMs) to avoid the use of animal testing and support regulatory decision making. There is regulatory need in the US EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) to identify and evaluate chemicals that may disrupt the thyroid endocrine system.

Thyroid NAMs are being developed and applied to increase data coverage across data poor chemicals using a tiered testing strategy, but validation of these methods is necessary to establish confidence for regulatory adoption. The objective of this project is to increase the confidence in applying and using data derived from human-based thyroid organotypic culture models (OCMs) to enable more robust assessments of thyroid disrupting chemicals.

• Evaluate the inter-individual variability in a human organotypic thyroid assay to establish benchmarks and acceptance criteria.
• Define chemical training sets for the technical validation of human organotypic thyroid assays.
• Conduct an intra-laboratory validation study to support the standardization and performance assessment of a human organotypic thyroid assay.

• Gain engagement and leadership skills in the design and execution of experimental research in a toxicology laboratory setting.
• Develop technical proficiency in the use and implementation of laboratory automation technologies for high-throughput drug and chemical screening.
• Build expertise in computational toxicology approaches by leading data analysis efforts.
• Gain skills with active participation in project team, branch and division meetings.
• Gain skills with preparing presentations, internal reports and data summaries.
• Gain skills with presenting at scientific conferences.
• Gain skills with authoring manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The mentor for this opportunity is Scott Lynn (lynn.scott). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor.

August 1, 2026. All start dates are flexible and vary depending on numerous factors.

The appointment will initially be for one year and may be renewed three to four additional years upon EPA recommendation and subject to availability of funding.

The appointment is full-time.

The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. The anticipated stipend range is $77,983 - $93,468 annually.

This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.