Volunteership Summer 2026

2026 Summer Volunteer Program Details

Dates

Application Deadline

Date TBD | 12:00 PM ET

Please email your updated resume and projects in order of preference. Acceptance letter/email will be sent to candidates latest the day after the kick-off meeting.

Volunteer Zoom Kick-Off Meeting

Date TBD | 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Program Dates: June 1, 2026 – July 31, 2026 (9 weeks)

Remote | Hybrid for GW employees and students (Ross Hall 5th floor)

Fall 2025 Volunteership (Closed)

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Volunteer Expectations

1. Minimum commitment of 10 hours per week.
2. Progress updates via Slack at least 3 days per week (scrum).
3. 30-minute Zoom meetings (during regular work hours) once a week or every other week with the assigned project point of contact (POC).
4. Attend some lectures or seminars remotely (max 4-5).

Important: If the scrum is not updated for 2 consecutive working days, the candidate will be automatically dropped from the program.

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Potential Projects

We are excited to continue our bioinformatics volunteership program in Summer 2026. This program offers students the opportunity to work on bioinformatics projects supported by agencies such as the NIH, ARPA-H, and FDA. Participants will gain exposure to a variety of activities within a bioinformatics lab, including data analysis, computational biology, and genomics. If you are interested, please email mazumder_lab@gwu.edu your resume and a ranked list of the projects that interest you most. You can also indicate if you want to focus on specific areas that are of interest to you.

1. BiomarkerKB (biomarkerkb.org) project: Biomarker curation project. Involves reading papers and collecting biomarkers.
2. GlyGen (glygen.org) project: Review glycomics and glycoproteomics data and curate tissue, disease, and other related information.
3. ARGOS (argosdb.org) project: Analyze genomics data using HIVE to identify reference genome assemblies.
4. PredictMod (hivelab.biochemistry.gwu.edu/predictmod) project. Curating PMIDs for intervention outcome prediction dataset LLM recommendation training.

Note: Individuals involved in the above projects with a background in programming and/or machine learning may also undertake additional tasks to support the development of ML models, which can be integrated into PredictMod or used to enhance AI/ML-ready datasets within GlyGen. We are also looking for individuals who have previously worked with us to take on a coordinator role.

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2. GlyGen Biocuration Project Ideas

3. GlyGen Publication Analysis Project Ideas

4. PredictMod Machine Learning (ML) Modeling Project

POC: Lori Krammer, Pat McNeely (optional)

Volunteers will conduct ML modeling using publicly-available -omics datasets that were previously identified (see our Recommended Publications for IOPMs page). This volunteership will involve data harmonization, model training, and pipeline documentation.

Tasks associated with this project include:

1. Exploring and understanding the data found in relevant PMIDs that can be used to train intervention outcome prediction models.
2. Preparing the data for model training and model performance evaluation
3. Testing the modeling tutorial, PredictMod platform, and associated project tools
4. Documentation of the ML pipeline and testing results

Deliverables for this project include:

1. ML-ready datasets
2. Trained model scripts
3. Pipeline documentation captured in BioCompute Objects (BCOs) and testing reports
4. Volunteership documentation (final report, progress updates, symposium presentation)

Interested individuals should reach out to lorikrammer@gwu.edu. Please note that this project requires attendance at biweekly meetings and a final presentation of your work.

5. BioCompute Objects User Research Project

POC: Lori Krammer, Pat McNeely

Volunteers will conduct individual audits and user researcher to improve the human readability of BioCompute Objects (BCOs) and the project documentation. This volunteership will involve user research, prototyping, and documentation.

Tasks associated with the project include:

1. Reviewing existing documentation to gain a comprehensive understanding of BioCompute Objects, their relevance to bioinformatics, and key user personas. The volunteer will identify and report gaps in the current documentation.
2. Conducting user research to understand pain points and desired outcomes. The volunteer will develop user stories based on interviews with BCO users.
3. Prototyping improvements to the BCO documentation and/or portal based on user stories. This could involve visual diagrams, wiki restructuring, or decision logs.

Deliverables will include:

1. User research report with user story maps
2. BCO documentation improvement plan
3. Volunteership documentation (final report, progress updates, symposium presentation)

Interested individuals should reach out to lorikrammer@gwu.edu. Please note that this project requires attendance at biweekly meetings and a final presentation of your work.

6. FDA-ARGOS Computation and Pathogen Curation Project

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Requirements for Completion

Note: The following are mandatory. Failure to complete any will result in an incomplete volunteer record.

Documentation

All volunteers must maintain adequate documentation of their work, including written protocols and scripts submitted to GitHub.

Written Report

Submit a 1–2 page summary of your tasks and accomplishments to the Admin during the final week of your program.

Presentation & Slide Submission

Present your work last week of the 9-week period.

Slides must be submitted to the POCs.

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Completion Certificate

A certificate of completion and a letter of recommendation will be provided to all participants who successfully complete the program. Additional recognition will be given to the top three volunteers with exceptional presentations at the end of the program.

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Contact

mazumder_lab@gwu.edu.

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Volunteers (TBD)

Name	Project Assigned	POC Assigned	Projects Interested

*Returning volunteer.

**Not directly involved in the semester curriculum; long-term volunteer.

Summer 2026 Symposium

The Summer symposium will be held virtually.

Date: TBD

Time: 4 - 6 PM

Zoom Link - TBA

Agenda (All times are in Eastern Standard Time)

Time	Project	Presentation Title	Presenter(s)