Research Cohorts Intern

About Us: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) was founded in 2000 with a single defined objective: accelerating meaningful therapeutic advances and, ultimately, a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD). The Foundation provides a distinctive combination of scientific, business, and media assets to this core focus. This triple-pronged, singularly-defined strategy towards disease research enables a dynamic, motivated, and young organization. MJFF has quickly grown into the largest global funder of Parkinson’s disease research outside of the federal government and has funded over $850 million in research projects across academic and industry labs worldwide.
 
MJFF raises over $100 million annually. We deliberately have no endowment or reserve because we believe that our capital needs to be invested today to find a cure for PD as quickly as possible. We start our fundraising from zero each year and deploy funds raised as quickly as possible, in a strategic, targeted, and vetted manner. The Foundation has approximately 165 full-time employees who are based in New York City.

MJFF is the implementation partner of the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2), a five-year program funded by Aligning Science Against Parkinson’s (ASAP) that will leverage existing consortia and cohorts to genotype more than 150,000 volunteers around the world to further understand the genetic architecture of this disease. The Research Cohorts Intern will have a unique opportunity to work within a highly regarded non-profit organization and gain firsthand knowledge of the goals and operations of GP2.

Summary:

The ideal candidate will be a proactive, organized individual who is detail-oriented and has excellent time management skills. The ability to prioritize one’s own time is a must. The Research Cohorts Intern's core responsibilities are to conduct a landscape assessment of large-scale genomic data sharing programs and research regulatory and ethical frameworks for data sharing. This role will require outreach to leaders of genomic data sharing programs and communication with internal and external GP2 stakeholders, so strong written and verbal communication skills are required. The Research Cohorts Intern will report to the Research Cohorts Associate Director.

This time-sensitive internship is only available for the 2020 spring semester. The internship will be 2-5 days a week, depending on both the needs of the team and the intern’s availability, for 4-6 weeks. Our general business hours are 9am to 5pm, with possibility to attend after hour’s events or off-site meetings. The internship is unpaid with a $15 per day stipend for transportation.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct landscape assessment of large-scale genomic data sharing programs
• Research international regulatory and ethical frameworks and standards for genomic data sharing
• Schedule, facilitate, and prepare notes from informational interviews with leaders of large-scale genomic data sharing programs
• Develop and share recommendations with internal and external GP2 stakeholders

Skills and Qualifications:

• Proactive, self-directed, detail-oriented and organized
• Excellent time management skills
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a team
• Flexibility and comfort with change
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Microsoft Office skills (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel)
• Familiarity with clinical research preferred, but not required