Undergraduate Summer Research Intern

Penn State University•Tallahassee, FL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Penn State College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Precision Medicine is seeking applicants for two part-time Undergraduate Summer Interns. These roles provide essential support to ongoing biomedical research, directly contributing to discoveries in autophagy and computational structural biology. Undergraduate researchers gain hands-on experience that advances both their professional development and the lab’s scientific goals.

Requirements

Currently enrolled undergraduate student (any year) at an accredited institution
Completed at least one college-level biology course (with laboratory preferred)
Completed at least one college-level programming course or demonstrated equivalent experience (e.g., Python, R, MATLAB, or similar), required for position B
Ability to commit to on-site work at Penn State College of Medicine for the summer term.

Responsibilities

Position A – Assists a research associate in preparing recombinant proteins for structural and functional studies of autophagy-related proteins.
Position B – Works with an investigator to explore emerging AI-based approaches for computational analysis of NMR data.
Protein expression – Assist in transforming, culturing, and inducing bacterial or insect cell lines for recombinant protein production.
Protein purification – Perform affinity, ion exchange, or size-exclusion chromatography under supervision.
Run SDS-PAGE gels to verify protein purity and integrity.
Laboratory recordkeeping – Maintain a detailed lab notebook.
Collaborative troubleshooting – Work with the research associate to optimize expression conditions or purification yields as needed.
Script development – Write or modify Python scripts to preprocess and analyze NMR spectral data.
AI model testing – Assist in applying machine learning tools to NMR spectral interpretation.
Results visualization – Generate plots and summary statistics for lab meetings and progress reports.