LHSI Intern: Research Assistant: ACL injury prevention: from animal models to humans

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. Stephen H. Schlecht

Department/Office: Medicine; Orthopaedic Surgery

Overview of the internship site: ACL injury prevention: from animal models to humans My laboratory focuses on elucidating: 1) the postnatal development of the knee joint and ACL-complex (i.e., ligament and entheses); 2) how the ACL-complex and surrounding bony structures respond to load perturbations during adolescence and early musculoskeletal maturity; 3) how fatigue-induced damage in the ACL-complex accumulates, and 4) the long-term physiological response within the ACL entheseal matrices following a catastrophic ligamentous injury. The overarching goals of my research are to develop new clinical diagnostics for ACL injury prevention in adolescent and young adult recreational and competitive athletes, and to improve primary ACL reconstruction outcomes in this young patient population to mitigate early-onset osteoarthritis. To pursue these endeavors, my laboratory has developed novel in vivo rodent models that allow for our experimental outcomes to then be translated back to our multi-institutional human cadaveric and patient research collaborations with University of Michigan and Monash University.

Website for more information: https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/44486/schlecht-stephen

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 3D imaging/analysis of animal knees, tissue histology, immunohistochemistry, gene expression analyses, protein analyses, mechanical testing of animal knees and ACLs

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in a lab setting with dress code of no shorts, no open-toed shoes

Hours per week: 10, scheduling is flexible within regular work 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.