2026 Immunology Bioinformatics Intern (PhD)

Company Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at . Follow @abbvie on X , Facebook , Instagram , YouTube , LinkedIn and Tik Tok .

Job Description

Envision spending your summer working with energetic colleagues and inspirational leaders, all while gaining world-class experience in one of the most dynamic organizations in the pharmaceutical industry. This is a reality for AbbVie Interns.

AbbVie’s QM&G is a center of excellence for bioinformatics, genomic sciences, human genetics and pharmacogenomics. The QM&G works across all R&D including discovery and clinical development, and multiple areas such as process sciences, search and evaluation and corporate strategy. The QM&G plays an integral role towards our goal of developing world class genetics and genomics research, focusing on finding the right targets and helping us better understand not only human disease biology but also the behavior of and response to our drugs in clinical trials.

The Bioinformatics for Immunology, Genetics, and Genomic Sciences (BIGGS) within QM&G is responsible for providing computational solutions and conducting computational research in collaboration with Discovery and Precision Medicine teams to facilitate target and biomarker discovery and development across AbbVie’s Immunology portfolio. We partner with clinical scientists across discovery and development to identify gene signatures and pathways operant in human diseases through interrogation of complex multi-omics data sets generated from clinical samples. We are seeking a highly motivated intern to lead a project aimed at integrating and analyzing genotype and phenotype data from different database sources to uncover genetic variants associated with adverse events, using robust real-world data (RWD) sources. The candidate will collaborate with computational biologists across the network and be integrated into research project teams focused on immunology, oncology, epidemiology, and statistics, analyzing multimodal RWD datasets to gain insights into immunological diseases. This role is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Key responsibilities include:

• Conduct extensive literature searches to identify and understand existing knowledge gaps related to adverse events.
• Conduct genome-wide association analyses to identify genetic variants associated with target traits.
• Validate significant findings through independent cohorts and functional annotation.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to integrate findings and contribute to identify specific patient groups with unmet needs.
• Document research processes and findings, ensuring clarity and accessibility for future projects and analysis.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications 

• Currently enrolled in university, pursuing a PhD in bioinformatics, genetics, genetic epidemiology, computational biology or other related field
• Must be enrolled in university for at least one semester following the internship
• Strong informatics skills for analyzing and visualizing genomic data, such as Whole Exome/Genome Sequencing; as well as surveillance health records
• Hands-on experience working with real-world data in biomedical research or healthcare applications
• Knowledge of immunology, molecular biology, and population genetics
• Proven experience in conducting GWAS and handling UK Biobank or OMOP data structures and/or other large genomic databases
• Proficiency using R is required, and familiarity with cloud infrastructures and databases

Preferred Qualifications

• Expected graduation date between December 2026 – July 2027
• Exposure to courses like causal inference, time-related bias, survival analysis
• Experience in handling adverse events is a plus
• Experience in immunology and/or oncology is preferred
• Strong problem-solving and collaboration skills
• Ability to communicate effectively with biologists, statisticians and other computational scientists.

Additional Information

Benefits and Amenities:​

• Competitive pay​

• Relocation support for eligible students​

• Select wellness benefits and paid holiday / sick time ​

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

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