LHSI Intern: Explorer of Molecular Biology

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. Charlie Dong

Department/Office: Medicine; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Overview of the internship site: Join us to explore the cellular system at molecular levels for discovery and therapeutic development! We are a molecular biology lab. Our interests are to investigate the fundamental biology of cellular and tissue functions at molecular levels. Several projects are funded by National Institutes of Health to study why old people are more susceptible to diabetes, why alcohol may cause cancer, and how epigenetics is involved in chronic liver disease. We use the state-of-the-art technologies to uncover cellular and subcellular alterations at molecular levels.

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

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: On a typical day, you would perform bench experiments to analyze DNA, RNA, or protein changes from various cell or tissue samples. After you collect data, you would transfer them to computer for analysis.

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in a lab setting with dress code casual

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.