FutureHouse AI-for-Science Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
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About the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
The FutureHouse AI-for-Science Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship provides outstanding early career scientists the opportunity to chart their own scientific path at the intersection of AI and science after their doctoral training. Most Fellows will collaborate with academic co-advisors to accelerate novel and groundbreaking discoveries across science. Our program provides Fellows with dedicated research support, full access to FutureHouse's cutting-edge AI agents and tools, compute resources, wet lab facilities, and engineering support.
Fellows will have intellectual and scientific freedom—we believe that scientific creativity flourishes in environments with both freedom and resources—giving talented researchers the space to pursue bold ideas while removing practical barriers that typically slow scientific progress.
Details
Fellows are employed directly by FutureHouse for a one-year term (with possible extension) and divide their time between our San Francisco headquarters and their co-advisor's academic institution.
The program seeks candidates with clear ideas about the scientific territory they want to explore using AI and the ability to independently lead and execute a research agenda that leverages our tools to make significant progress toward high-impact discoveries.
The 2025 deadline for FutureHouse’s AI-for-Science Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has now passed and we are no longer accepting new applications. Sign up to be notified when we launch our next call for applications.
Meet our 2025 Fellows
Laura Luebbert
Laura develops computational methods to characterize the human virome using high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing data in the Sabeti lab. Her research focuses on leveraging AI-driven approaches to uncover the hidden roles of viruses in health and complex diseases. She previously developed gget, a widely adopted open-source toolkit for transcriptomic and proteomic analysis. During her PhD in Computational Biology from Caltech, Laura created algorithms to discover viral sequences in RNA sequencing data.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, she will help drive large-scale, machine learning-driven virome discovery and interpretation, aiming to transform our understanding of the role of viruses in human health and disease.
Philine Guckelberger
Philine is a molecular biologist with a long-standing curiosity about 3D genome architecture and epigenomic regulation. During her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, she developed high-throughput genomics assays to uncover how cohesin-mediated 3D contacts tune enhancer–promoter communication and revealed a key role for the chromatin remodeler HELLS in maintaining DNA methylation after replication.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, Philine will integrate AI-powered genomic analysis to uncover cohesin-dependent gene regulation mechanisms, aiming to reveal how 3D genome architecture influences evolution, development, and disease.
Dániel Barabási
Dániel was awarded a PhD in Biophysics from Harvard in 2023. His work blends neuroscience, network science, and machine learning, with the perspective that the brain is not a complex entity molded solely by experience, but is a fundamentally simple self-assembling system, governed by genetic processes during embryonic development.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, Dániel aims to leverage Aviary models for comparative connectomics hypothesis generation, with a focus on local network computations and rules of circuits formation.
Sarah Gurev
During her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, Sarah developed deep generative models for protein sequences, with an emphasis on viral and immune proteins. As part of Debora Marks' lab, Sarah created models to forecast viral antibody escape, which can provide early warning for variants of concern and guide the design of future-proof vaccines.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, Sarah will develop machine learning models to investigate viral-host interactions, with the goal of predicting spillover at scale.
Chenghao Liu
Chenghao is a chemist and computer scientist whose research is focused on designing novel, emergent properties in chemical systems. During his PhD he studied physical organic chemistry with Dmytro Perepichka at McGill University as well as generative machine learning with Yoshua Bengio at Mila-Quebec AI Institute. He was also a co-founder of Dreamfold, a startup focused on protein design.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, Chenghao is working with Prof. Frances Arnold at Caltech to create enzymes capable of catalyzing new-to-nature reactions, aiming to close the loop between computational design and directed evolution.
Blake Lash
Blake is a bioengineer and molecular biologist working at the interface of discovery biology and therapeutic design. Motivated by a long-standing fascination with the immune system, he developed scalable platforms for targeted cargo delivery during his PhD from MIT.
As a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow, he will work with FutureHouse to build tools to automate biological discovery, with the goal of identifying, characterizing, and developing novel mechanisms of immune modulation across the tree of life.
Becoming a FutureHouse Postdoctoral Fellow
Location
Fellows will spend their first month full-time at FutureHouse (San Francisco) for systems training, then split their time between FutureHouse and their academic lab as they choose.
Duration
Fellowships may begin at any time after selection, but no later than September 2025. All fellowships, regardless of start date, will run through September 2026, with a possible one-year extension.
Stipend
Fellows receive a $125,000 annual stipend, as well as a travel allowance to attend scientific conferences and meetings.
Eligibility
Candidates must have completed their PhD or be on track to complete it by September of the Fellowship year. Current postdoctoral researchers are also eligible.
We welcome applicants from two pathways: those with strong backgrounds in biology, neuroscience, bioengineering, or biochemistry who have quantitative skills and interest in AI; or those with expertise in AI/machine learning applied to science who want to tackle specific problems in biology and related fields.
International applicants are encouraged to apply, and we can support relevant visa requirements.
The 2025 deadline for FutureHouse’s AI-for-Science Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has now passed and we are no longer accepting new applications. Sign up to be notified when we launch our next call for applications.
Resources
Fellows have access to FutureHouse's comprehensive research infrastructure, including our platform, as well as unreleased specialized agents for e.g. protein design, DNA sequence analysis, and biomedical data analysis. Fellows will also have access to our robust internal datasets and substantial compute resources. Fellows can use our general-purpose wet lab facilities and receive dedicated support from our software engineering team. Additionally, fellows will obtain a visiting scientist position at their co-advisor's academic institution, providing access to complementary facilities and expertise.
Questions? Please email fellows@futurehouse.org
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