Full-Time Research Summer Intern - 2026
About The Position
As the leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization, Breakthrough T1D helps make everyday life with T1D better while driving toward cures. We invest in the most promising research to turn ideas into life-changing therapies and devices. We work with government, regulatory officials, and insurance companies to address issues that impact the T1D community -- breaking through barriers that limit access to care worldwide. We provide resources and guidance that makes it easier to live and thrive with T1D. This is more than a moment -- we're empowering a movement for the T1D community. Share your support and help educate and empower individuals facing type 1 diabetes. Our mission is to improve lives today and tomorrow by accelerating life changing breakthroughs to treat, prevent and ultimately, cure T1D and its complications. Always, we are guided by a single purpose: As we drive towards curing type 1 diabetes, we help make everyday life better for the people who face it. Project Summary (Projects should be a program designed to develop, train, and provide practical hands-on experience in the student’s field of study) Assessment of methods and procedures to measure Insulin-producing cell function. A major pillar of Breakthrough T1D Cell Therapy program is focused on the source of insulin producing cells used in islet replacement. Historically this has focused on islets isolated from donor pancreata, with manufactured cell sources increasing in popularity in the past decade. With the accessibility of protocols to generate insulin producing islet-like cells from precursors increasing, more researchers than ever are generating these cells for research. However, as their use has increased so have the ways in which researchers assess their function. Glucose stimulated insulin secretion assays are the gold standard for measuring islet cell function, however the field lacks a unified framework to perform these assays (static versus dynamic assays, varying low and high glucose concentrations, variable collection timepoints, and reporting etc.) Further, in vivo assays (i.e., transplantation) similarly lack consistent parameters including the number of cells transplanted, endpoints, and models. In order to enable comparisons between insulin producing cells across laboratories and research programs, the field would benefit from a set of recommended guidelines for performing these assays. Through informational meetings with researchers working on islet cell replacement and published literature review, this project aims to generate a landscape of the methods and procedures used across the Breakthrough T1D research portfolio to assess islet cell function. By understanding which parameters are most commonly used, a harmonized recommendation for the field can be made with the aim of increasing the comparability of islet cell sources used in T1D research.
Requirements
- Familiarity or interest in biomedical research (especially T1D)
- Communication skills required to conduct interviews with researchers
- Experience working with NLM NCBI PubMed
Benefits
- Breakthrough T1D offers competitive benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan, voluntary benefits, flexible spending and commuter benefit accounts, an employee assistance program (EAP), life and disability insurance, performance-based bonuses, and generous paid time off.
- Benefits may vary by job level and full time or part time status.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Intern
Education Level
No Education Listed
