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Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education · 3 weeks ago

USDA-ARS Dietary Fiber and Precision Nutrition Fellowship

Beltsville, MD

Full-time

Onsite

New Grad

$7,500/mo - $8,000/mo

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is offering a research fellowship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service focused on dietary fiber analysis. The fellow will gain experience in analytical methods for measuring dietary fiber and contribute to developing a simplified method for its determination.

Government Administration

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Learn how to generate an instrumental method for soluble dietary fiber analysis, along with exemplar data sufficient to initiate an interlaboratory study, which is required for AOAC and AACC approval

Samples of beans (Great Northern and black), cereal grains (whole wheat and rice), ancient grains (sorghum and spelt), pseudocereals (amaranth and buckwheat), and traditional foods with novel carbohydrate components such as algae (nori and kombu) will be commercially obtained

Lyophilized, ground, food samples will be digested and under the biomimetic conditions of AOAC 2022.01 in tared digestion tubes, however after digestion, IDF will be isolated by centrifugation

Bypassing precipitation, proteinaceous and mineral components will be removed from the supernatant using ion exchange resins

The supernatant will be lyophilized and reconstituted at several levels of dilution to optimize method selectivity and sensitivity

Each level will receive the internal standard, diethyleneglycol, and be analyzed by size exclusion chromatography followed by RI detection and universal mass calibration will be performed by viscometry

As a universal detector, RI allows for absolute quantitation of soluble dietary fiber with no need for ash or nitrogen correction, saving time and reducing cost

Universal mass calibration will offer true molecular weight data for soluble fiber composition

These data will be published in an AOAC or AACC journal, and a potential interlaboratory study

Qualification

Analytical ChemistryBio-organic ChemistryBiophysical ChemistryStatistical methodsResearch experience

Required

Doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields

Degree must have been received within the past five years

U.S. Citizen Only

Discipline(s): Chemistry and Materials Sciences including Analytical Chemistry, Bio-inorganic Chemistry, Bio-organic Chemistry, Biophysical Chemistry, Chemistry (General), Environmental Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry