Underrepresented Student Internship Program

The Underrepresented Student Internship Program provides the opportunity for undergraduate students from US colleges and universities to receive mentorship and training from NIH Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) labs over the summer.
 
 
Our 2021 and 2022 interns said:
  • “My mentors and PI were so helpful and knowledgeable. They helped me so much during this process and in every meeting that I had with them I felt that I got to know them and the work they do.”
  • “[I enjoyed] being able to learn hands-on with new programs and integrating those with research.”
  • “I loved hearing about everyone’s research and being able to present everything I’ve learned in front of a group with similar interests.”
  • “[I was excited by] the fact that I was able to work so closely with professionals in a field that I one day would like to be in. I was so amazed by how well versed and well informed everyone was. It was truly inspirational.”
  • “The most exciting thing about the HuBMAP internship is that you can combine science and technology to create something that will contribute to the biotech community.”
  • “It was an amazing experience and it was nice to be surrounded by professionals that truly cared about us and wanted to make sure that we succeeded.”
  • “I learned a lot from this experience on both the personal and professional level. I got to add to my skills and experience in my field of interest, have a much clearer idea of my career goals and ways to achieve them, and developed my ability to work in a lab environment and have an internal locus of control.”
  • “The most rewarding part is I really have learned a lot from the experience, I have seen many things that I haven't seen before, and it also increases my comfort to participate in other research labs.”

2023 Interns

Intern...will be working with
Barera Ajaz, from Fordham Universitythe Kim, O'Neill and Gregory labs at the University of Pennsylvania
Ella Barton, from Mount Holyoke Collegethe Jain lab at the Washington University School of Medicine
Alejandra Tapia Batres, from Georgia State Universitythe Börner lab at Indiana University
Esonica Charles, from University of Virgin Islandsthe Hagood lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center
Elias Ciudad, from St. Mary´s Universitythe Satija lab at the New York Genome Center
Charles Godinez, from Barstow Community Collegethe Laurent lab at the University of California, San Diego
Jada Harvey, from Edward Waters Universitythe Pryhuber lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center
Harley Hernandez, from State University of New York, New Paltzthe Kim, O'Neill, and Gregory labs at the University of Pennsylvania
Kanishka Kumar, from California State University, Fullertonthe Angelo lab at Stanford University
Monica Macharios, from University of North Carolina Chapel Hillthe Spraggins lab at Vanderbilt University
Maisa Maliha, from Dickinson Collegethe Blood lab at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Julio Maragall, from Santa Fe Collegethe Sarder lab at the University of Florida
Sofia Martin, from St. Edward's Universitythe Jain lab at the Washington University School of Medicine
Rosemary McKerley, from Bates Collegethe Shi lab at University of California San Diego
Sydney Meyer, from Wheaton College (MA)the Gehlenborg lab at Harvard Medical School
Liya Mooradian, Iowa State University of Science and Technologythe Pei lab at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/University of Pennsylvania
Antonio Moore, Fisk Universitythe Anderton lab at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Favour Olushola, from Tulane Universitythe Pasa-Tolic lab at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Arianne Parvaresh-Rizi, from University of Rhode Islandthe Tan lab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia/ University of Pennsylvania
Aidan Reyes, from California State University, Los Angelesthe Fan lab at Yale University
Tofi Soneye, from Fisk Universitythe Segré lab at Massachusetts Eye & Ear/Harvard Medical School
Lin Xu, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universitythe Sarder lab at the University of Florida

Calling all current and former interns: If you ever participated in HuBMAP research as an undergraduate, we invite you to join the HuBMAP Intern Networking Group on LinkedIn. PIs and mentors are also encouraged to join.

2024 Internships

Information for 2024 summer internships will be made available in late 2023.

 Questions? Email us at: internshipapply@hubmapconsortium.org

2023 Eligibility

Eligible students will:

  • Be an undergraduate student attending a US institution at the time of application.
  • Be college undergraduates in the United States majoring in any of the STEM fields with a minimum of 3.0 grade point average.
  • Be a member of an underrepresented group (as defined by NIH). See the NIH criteria.


Preference will be given to students who do not have ready access to biomedical (and/or single cell biology) research opportunities in their home institutions.



Successful applicants will have:

    An interest in and passion for studying biological or computational sciences, or related STEM fields

    At least a 3.0 GPA

    A demonstrated strong work ethic

    Some experience with programming, if applying to a computational program

    Some experience with lab work, if applying to an experimental program

    A personal statement which outlines their interests and experience
2023 Application process
All applicants will be required to submit an application form, transcript, personal statement, and 2 letters of recommendation. All materials should be submitted via the application form, by February 1, 2023.

Transcript: Unofficial transcripts are acceptable. Please submit transcripts as an attachment to your application form, as a PDF.

Personal Statement: Please submit a personal statement as an attachment to your application form, briefly describing your background, interest in participating in this summer undergraduate research program in single cell science, and your career goals. Please attach your personal statement in PDF format. Personal statements should be no longer than 2 pages single spaced, font size 11, Times New Roman.

Letters of recommendation: Two letters of recommendation should be sent to the application committee from your references, by the application due date of February 1, 2023. Letters of recommendation should be sent to internshipapply@hubmapconsortium.org.
2023 Requirements

Accepted students are required to:

  • Conduct their own small research project or work on part of an ongoing research project.
  • Attend a weekly virtual seminar series that will introduce rapidly progressing medical and basic research areas.
  • Complete all Compliance Training, Conflict of Interest Forms and/or any other training deemed necessary for the internship as soon as it is received.
  • Report to work on time as designated by the mentor to work on assigned research project. Students are expected to work no more than 40 hours a week.
  • Present a virtual poster at the end of the project about their experience. The date of the presentation will be determined by the NIH HuBMAP program.
2023 Funding
Accepted students will receive a stipend. Additional funding to cover living and travel expenses for in-person experiences will be determined on a lab by lab basis.

Due to the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person experiences are not guaranteed.

2022 HuBMAP Intern Accomplishments

In 2022, we offered in-person, remote, and hybrid opportunities, and our 13 interns had a rewarding, engaging experience across 13 HuBMAP labs. At the end of the internship, the 2022 interns presented their research findings to the HuBMAP and broader community. 

 
View Playlist of Final Presentations
 
Anusha Thaniana

Anusha performed single-cell RNA-sequencing to determine the activity levels of genes within the heart to study Fontan Associated Liver Disease.

Watch Anusha’s final presentation

Camryn Pettenger-Willey

Camryn worked at PNNL to optimize a protocol for imaging different versions of proteins within tissues.

Watch Camryn’s final presentation

Fransiskus (Frans) Agapa

Frans developed a computer program that automatically extracted, prepared, and submitted data and metadata from HuBMAP and the NIH database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGap) to be ingested by the Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE).

Watch Frans’ final presentation

Gabrielle LeNoir

Gabrielle analyzed specific cell populations in the female reproductive system to better understand the stages of the menstrual cycle.

Watch Gabrielle’s final presentation 

Genna Mahabeer

Genna mapped proteins within the red and white pulp regions of the spleen.

Watch Genna’s final presentation

 

 

 

Karli Prather

Karli worked at the Penn Image Computer and Science (PICSL) Lab to develop an interactive and customizable digital representation of the ovary. She built a computer model of the pelvis to give users a point of reference for where the ovary is situated in the body.

Watch Karli’s final presentation 

Lesley Aguilar-Salceda

Lesley used single-cell RNA sequencing to study different cell types in the motor cortex of the brain in mice, ferrets, and pigs to find genes that have been conserved throughout evolution.

Watch Lesley’s final presentation

 

Lin Xu

Lin helped to develop a program that automatically adds different colors to images of tissue slices. By colorizing these images, people are more easily able to understand the structure of the cells and tissues that they see.

Watch Lin’s final presentation

 

Marielena Grijalva

Marielena optimized the protocol for isolating nuclei from uterine tissue for Singulator, a machine that dissociates tissue into single-cell or nuclei suspensions.

Watch Marielena’s final presentation

M.J. Hopkins

M.J. determined the optimal concentration of antibodies necessary to characterize the cells from the airway in single-cell techniques.

Watch M.J.’s final presentation

Mohamed El-Sadec

Mohamed optimized the High-throughput Analysis of Modified Ribonucleoties (HAMR) software which makes notes of nucleotides in RNA sequencing data that have been modified after transcription.

Watch Mohamed’s final presentation

Sangmyung (Sam) Lee

Sangmyung compared Tabula sapiens to HuBMAP’s Human Reference Atlas (HRA). Tabula sapiens is a molecular reference atlas for more than 400 cell types of the human body, and ASCT+B tables are a data framework built by HuBMAP researchers to capture naming terms for anatomical human body parts and spatial reference objects. By comparing the two, the HRA can determine what’s missing, and what needs to be added to improve.

Watch Sam’s final presentation

Tram Nguyen

Tram worked on the user interface for the HuBMAP Data Portal by making graphs of existing metadata using the R programming language.

Watch Tram’s final presentation

 

Interested in viewing the 2021 presentations? View Full Presentation Playlist