Summer Programs

PAID SUMMER INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY
SCORCH Program — Summer Internship

Single Cell Opioid Responses in the Context of HIV (SCORCH)
Summer internship program hosted by the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Applications are open for in-person, hybrid, and remote interns.

🌟 About the Program

The SCORCH program (more information) is an interdisciplinary research program focused on understanding how opioids, substance use disorders, and HIV affect the brain at the cellular level using cutting-edge single-cell technologies.

The program works to:

✅ Study brain cell changes related to addiction and HIV
✅ Generate and share large-scale molecular data
✅ Advance treatments for substance use disorders and HIV-related neurological effects
✅ Support collaborative biomedical research across institutions

💡 Summer Internship Experience

Interns will gain hands-on exposure to biomedical and data-driven research in areas such as:

🔬 Genomics and single-cell technologies
🧠 Neuroscience and brain research
💻 Data science and bioinformatics
📊 Research analysis and scientific collaboration
🌐 Interdisciplinary team science

Participants will work alongside scientists contributing to cutting-edge HIV and addiction research. These research opportunities are computational based (i.e. no laboratory component) with opportunities to tailor summer projects based on individual’s interest and experience.

Exact start and end dates are flexible depending on the applicant's schedule but will be expected to devote 30-40 hrs per week (max 400 hrs per summer). Salary is $20 per hour.

Who Should Apply

Ideal candidates include students (Undergraduate and graduate students encouraged to apply) interested in:

• Biology or neuroscience
• Bioinformatics or data science
• Medicine or health sciences
• Computational biology
• Computer science

Application process

Fill out the form linked below, including resume and cover letter, by April 1st. Applicants will hear back by April 15th.

IGS High School Summer Bioinformatics Program

This is a 4-week hybrid program open to Maryland, Northern VA, and Washington DC residents.

A group of 15-20 students will participate in the program together.

Types of topics and activities included in the program:

• Introduction to Omics and Bioinformatics
• Command line interactions within the Linux Operating System
• Analysis of genomic and/or transcriptomic data using bioinformatics tools
• Career information
• Campus/IGS tours
• Lab visits and activities
• Student project presentations

General schedule:

• Synchronous online sessions: Each morning (Mon-Fri) there will be lessons, demonstrations, or group activities from 10:00-12:00 (Eastern). These sessions will be synchronous Zoom sessions and recorded. Each afternoon students will work independently on exercises or tasks related to the morning content or their independent study project (see below). The expectation is that students will spend ~25-30 hours per week on program tasks.
• In-Person Lab days: Spread over the 4 weeks will be several in-person “lab days” which are events held at IGS or partner organizations during which students will have an opportunity to engage in hands-on laboratory activities.
• Student Presentations: All students in the program will pick a biology or bioinformatics topic of choice (for example: echolocation, sequence alignment tools, spatial transcriptomics), engage in independent study on the topic (via literature review, database searches, use of NCBI resources, etc.), and prepare a 10-15 minute oral presentation which they will present at the end of the 4 weeks.

Dates:

The program will start on Tuesday, July 7^th and end on Friday, July 31^st

To apply, fill out the form at the link below and provide your resume and a cover letter describing your interests and why you wish to join this program. Note that we generally get more applicants than we have available slots, thus placement in the program is not guaranteed.