LHSI Intern: Translational Research Intern

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. Nathan Alves, PhD

Department/Office: Medicine; Emergency Medicine

Overview of the internship site: My laboratory is highly interdisciplinary working on translational research problems that leverage many biochemistry and laboratory assays to solve relevant blood clot related clinical problems. The primary focus of research in my laboratory is two-fold: 1) the creation of high-fidelity blood clot formation and blood clot digestion assays using human blood; 2) to develop targeted clot digesting therapeutic agents to more safely digest clinically relevant blood clots to treat pulmonary embolism (PE, blood clots in the lungs), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and ischemic stroke. This interdisciplinary research utilizes diverse enzyme assays, chemical synthesis, blood clot formation and digestion assays under shear, and other novel testing/delivery platforms that include multivalent branched molecules and nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Additionally, we work on how exposure to diverse microplastic sizes, concentrations, and surface chemistries impact clot formation and clot digestion in whole blood. My laboratory regularly supports research from undergraduate, graduate, and medical students in cross disciplinary research teams.

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

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Learn and perform hands on assays that may include: handling human blood, forming blood clots under shear, conducting enzyme based assays, chemical synthesis, and purification.

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in a lab setting with dress code of closed toed shoes required.

Hours per week: flexible based on student needs (10 maximum), scheduling is flexible within regular work hours

Project-specific qualifications: A desire to learn and be part of a team are all that are necessary for the position. Experience in laboratory assays of any kind (pipetting, aliquoting, protein assays, blood processing) preferred. Basic biological knowledge and some chemistry are also preferred but not required.

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.