Research internship on offer

Are you a biologist interested in using comp bio / AI for drug discovery and development? The Burgstaller lab is working on development of antifibrotics against Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and we are looking for 2 master students for a computational internship.

Lab background: Overproduction of extracellular matrix (ECM) by activated myofibroblasts as a result of cytokines like transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a key feature of IPF. Novel antifibrotics are urgently needed since the approved therapies only slow down disease progression.
We work at different stages of early-stage drug development like conducting phenotypic high throughput screenings, lead optimization, target identification, mode of action studies, etc. We are now also exploring ways of integrating AI in our antifibrotics development pipeline.

The projects available can be selected depending on your prior domain knowledge and proficiency. Some include structure-activity relationship analysis, image classification models, and understanding roles of different chemical embeddings used in models better.
Further details about the projects will be provided in the interview.

When and how long: Starting in May/June, for 2 months, with the possibility of continuing as a Master’s thesis student.

Who we are looking for:
• 2 master’s students currently enrolled in a university in Munich.
• Should have coding experience in Python.
• Can work full time (~40 hours/week). Work timings are flexible.
• Basic knowledge in machine learning and experience in working with AI models would be preferred.

If you are interested and fulfil the requirements, please send an email with a short paragraph on your research background and why you are interested, along with your CV to kevin.merchant@helmholtz-munich.de.