Ingelheim, Germany and New Haven, CT– [February 17, 2025] Yale University and Boehringer Ingelheim today announced the opening of applications for the renewed and expanded Yale-Boehringer Ingelheim Biomedical Data Science Fellowship Program designed for postdoctoral researchers in data science. This year’s program introduces a new theme: Leveraging Biomedical Foundation Models to Address Crucial Drug Discovery Challenges. The RFP for cohort 4 will launch on February 17, 2025 and cohort 5 will launch in early 2026.

Fellows will benefit from Yale’s extensive computational resources, biomedical data repositories, and faculty expertise while collaborating closely with Boehringer Ingelheim’s leading scientists, laboratories, and executives. This unique partnership between academia and industry offers fellows an opportunity to drive innovation in biomedical data science while working alongside some of the brightest minds in the field.  

The three-year fellowship program seeks to attract top global talent to Connecticut and is open to post-doctoral researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence in healthcare, bioinformatics, digital health and telemedicine, genomic medicine, health informatics, multi-omics integration, and personalized and precision medicine. If approved for a fellowship, candidates will be jointly mentored by industry experts and scientists from Boehringer Ingelheim — one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies — as well as Yale’s world-class researchers and scholars. 

“We are thrilled to expand this exciting partnership with our colleagues at Boehringer Ingelheim. The model we’ve built together over the past three years fosters a collaborative spirit and ensures that both institutions have a vested interest in the projects and the fellows’ success. Together, we have built a community that brings together the most innovative minds in data science from around the world to explore innovative applications in complex drug discovery issues,” said the project's Principal Investigator Hongyu Zhao, PhD, professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health, of genetics at Yale School of Medicine, and of statistics and data science at Yale. 

Since its launch in May 2021, the fellowship program has achieved significant interest, drawing 75 applicants, including just over half from Yale, as well as from other institutions around the globe with diverse research areas ranging from drug discovery and development to clinical informatics and computational genomics. The program is sponsored by the Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, and Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. 

Some examples of the program’s impact and success include the recent publication by one of the fellows, Dr. Xiayuan Huang, with Yale mentor Dr. Anita Wang and BI mentor Dr. Johann de Jong, on a new method called ALIGATEHR that uses inferred family relations in electronic health records (EHR) to enhance patient representation learning for predictive and interpretable modeling of EHRs, and a workshop held at the International Conference on AI in Medicine. 

This year, the fellowship will introduce an exciting new focus: Leveraging Biomedical Foundation Models to Address Crucial Drug Discovery Challenges. By linking talented and inspired fellows with the experience and expertise of Yale and Boehringer Ingelheim researchers, the fellowship seeks to leverage the latest advances in innovative LLM technology to reshape the pharmaceutical landscape. Through cutting-edge applications of these technologies, the program aims to revolutionize the creation of new medications, accelerate the development of effective treatments, and ultimately improve healthcare outcomes. 

The fellowship program is built on a unique collaboration model where postdoctoral researchers, jointly mentored by Yale faculty and Boehringer Ingelheim scientists, tackle research projects grounded in real-world challenges. Moving beyond traditional sponsorship models, the program is focused on advanced research outcomes, cutting-edge methodologies, and enhanced academic and industrial expertise.  

This fellowship embodies the shared vision of Yale University and Boehringer Ingelheim to harness data science in transforming drug discovery and development. By equipping early-career computational scientists with mentorship, professional development opportunities, and a platform to tackle real-world challenges, the program prepares future leaders in academia and industry.  

“In partnering with a top-tier academic and research institution like Yale, we aim to recruit and train a new generation of highly skilled data scientists to help us accelerate development of novel treatments and therapies for human disease and improve health outcomes for our patients,” said Jan Nygaard Jensen, PhD, Global Head of Computational Biology and Digital Sciences at Boehringer Ingelheim.

To apply for the Yale-Boehringer Ingelheim Biomedical Data Science Fellowship or learn more, please visit the Yale University and Boehringer Ingelheim Biomedical Data Science Fellowship Program.