LHSI Intern: Orthopaedic Research

Program Summary:  

This internship is offered as a part of the Life-Health Sciences Internship Program (LHSI). This program connects 125 IUI undergraduates per year with internships on campus with faculty and staff in a variety of health and science related campus areas/programs. All LHSI internships start in August 2025 and end in May 2026 and are paid $13/hour for up to 10 hours per week. Work-study is accepted but not required.

Supervisor: Dr. Melissa Kacena

Department/Office: Medicine; Orthopaedic Surgery

Overview of the internship site: Orthopaedic surgery laboratory studying fracture healing, osteoporosis, and bone loss due to COVID. We examine fracture healing is aging, type 2 diabetes, and spaceflight and determine how we can improve outcomes with novel bone healing agents and pain medications. We also examine how hematopoietic cells regulate bone mass. Recently we have begun to examine bone loss in COVID.

Website for more information: https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty-labs/kacena

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Working with mice and assisting with surgeries, X rays, and microCT analysis. Standard molecular and cell biology methods, including PCR.

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in a lab setting with dress code pants and closed toe shoes

Hours per week: 10, scheduling is flexible but requires larger blocks of time 3+ hours

By the end of the LHSI program, you will:

·        Carefully consider, explore, and articulate your career goals, including an analysis of how you arrived at that path and what steps you need to take next. (Community Contributor, Communicator)

·        Understand your role and strengths on a professional team and analyze who you would like to become as a professional. (Communicator)

·        Gain and strengthen skills relevant to next steps after graduation, such as communication, collaboration, teamwork, analysis/synthesis/evaluation, independence, confronting/challenging failure, problem-solving and perseverance, and constructive criticism. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Convey ideas and knowledge effectively through an ePortfolio and presentation of your internship work. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Set and meet your own additional learning goals identified with your supervisor.

LHSI Qualifications  

·        must be graduating May 2027 or after (usually a current freshman or sophomore in Spring 2025)   

·        Current full-time IUI undergraduate

·        minimum overall GPA of 2.0 

·        All majors welcome

To apply:

LHSI accepts at least 125 interns per year. Complete the application for LHSI at lhsi.indianapolis.iu.edu and select 3-4 internship sites on that application. All available sites are listed in Handshake and will start with the position title “LHSI Intern.” You will meet with at least 2 of these if selected for interviews.