Summer Science Sojourn: Biodesign Institute announces summer internship program

The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University is pleased to announce the participants in this year’s High School Summer Internship Program. Ten students were selected from a large pool of applicants for this highly competitive and prestigious program, which offers promising students from high schools across the Valley an opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research under the watchful eye of a scientific mentor.

The Biodesign Institute represents the largest investment in bioscience research under one roof in the state of Arizona. It is focused on innovations for improving health care, providing renewable sources of energy, mitigating environmental contamination, outpacing infectious diseases and enhancing national security.

The six-week, paid internships will commence June 7 at the Institute and will include projects for developing new vaccines to prevent infectious diseases, diagnosing diseases earlier and more accurately,  finding alternative energy sources, and exploring biological systems to clean up drinking water and other environmental contamination.

Following orientation and laboratory safety training, students will devote roughly 20 hours a week to in-depth study, including hands-on laboratory technique and analysis of data for their specific project. The semester will culminate July 19 with presentations by the students of their scientific research results to the university community, their mentors, parents and fellow students. 

Biodesign’s rigorous program, now in its fifth year, helps prepare students for careers in the biosciences and engineering, and is an important part of the pipeline for growing Arizona’s biosciences and biotechnology economic sector. Students were selected by a review board, based on each applicant’s preparatory coursework in science, grade point average, teacher recommendations and an essay outlining their goals and interests.

Congratulations to this year’s participants!

Jenna Makis: Pinnacle High School  Phoenix, AZ
Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics (EMI), under Dr. Alan Filipski. Project: Evolutionary properties of human disease mutations as revealed through bioinformatics.

Dena Navarroli: Mesquite High School  Gilbert, AZ
Center for Ecogenomics (EG), under Dr. Joseph Chao and Dr. Weimin Gao.
Project: Highly parallel microchamber arrays for microbe cultivation and species identification.

Carrie Lin: Desert Vista High School  Phoenix, AZ
Center for Innovations in Medicine (IM), under Dr. Patricia Carrigan.
Project: Microarray detection and diagnosis of disease based on the antibody reactivity profile contained in a single drop of blood.

George Chen: Corona del Sol High School Tempe, AZ
Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics (PD), under Dr. Mitch Magee and Graduate Research Assistant Brianne Petritis.
Project: Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Arrays and their use in identifying autoantibodies in models of lymphoma.

Alexander Roesler: Mountain View High School   Mesa, AZ
Center for Innovations in Medicine (IM), under Dr. Bart Legutki.
Project: Microarray detection and diagnosis of disease based on the antibody reactivity profile contained in a single drop of blood.
 
Ryan Muller: North High School  Phoenix, AZ
Center for Single Molecule Biophysics (SMB), under Dr. Stuart Lindsay, director of the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics and
Qiang Fu, Graduate Research Associate.
Project: Chromatin condensation in artificial chromatin.

Daniel Ferolino: Gilbert High School, Gilbert, AZ
Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, (IDV), under Dr. Timothy Karr, Associate Professor of Research and Sheri Skerget, Graduate Research Associate
Project: Screening Drosophila stocks for Wolbachia infection which leads to sperm modification and infertility.

Linh Tran: Washington High School Phoenix, AZ
Center for Ecogenomics (EG), under Dr. Roger Johnson, Graduate Research Associate Vivek Nandakumar, and Undergraduate Kathryn Hernandez.
Project: 3D single-cell microimaging to quantify nuclear morphometric transformation in cancer.

David Belohlavek: Desert Mountain High School  Scottsdale, AZ
Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors (BB), under Dr. Erica Forzani.
Project: Developing sensors for environmental and health biomarkers.

Gaurav Albal: BASIS Scottsdale, AZ
Center for Environmental Biotechnology (EB), under Dr. Seongjun Park.
Project: Photocatalysis and biodegradation of environmental toxins using circulating-bed biofilm reactors.