Flyer: VT REU 2022

Posting subject line

“Research internship to study how radiation interact with the immune system to combat cancer”

Professors

Gabriel O. Sawakuchi, PhD and Simona F. Shaitelman, MD

Departments

Radiation Physics (Sawakuchi) and Radiation Oncology (Shaitelman)

Institution

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Openings

Several in-person research internship positions are available to start in January 2022. Positions are without compensation during the school year with the possibility of stipend through competitive research programs for summers. The duration of the internship is unlimited. Students are expected to spend at least 9 hours per week during the school year and at least part time during the summer. If student participates in paid research program during the summer, the student is expected to follow the rules of the program. During the internship students will become familiar with translational cancer research, molecular biology assays and radiation oncology. Students will perform focused tasks within larger projects including assessing: 1) DNA damage induced by different types of radiation: 2) the effect of different DNA repair inhibitors to sensitize cancer cells to radiation; and 3) molecular factors triggered by radiation that induce immune response.

Lab focus

Our research aims to use radiation in combination with DNA repair inhibitors to amplify the effect of immune checkpoint blockade to combat cancer. The findings from our lab are translated to clinical trials in cancer radiotherapy.

Techniques

Students will learn techniques in molecular biology including clonogenic assay, flow cytometry, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, etc to investigate how radiation and DNA repair inhibitors modulate cell survival, cell cycle, DNA damage, DNA repair, and protein expression. We use cancer cell lines and tumor models in small animals in our projects.

Location

Our lab is located at the Zayed Building (6565 MD Anderson Blvd) which is within 20 min walking distance from the Weiss School of Natural Sciences.

Environment/ Personnel

We are a multicultural and multidisciplinary lab with researchers with expertise in biology, radiobiology, physics, medical physics and radiation oncology. The lab is composed of one instructor, one research scientist, four postdoctoral fellows, two graduate students, two undergraduate students from Rice and two high-school students. Undergraduate students will work directly with a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow and also have the opportunity to mentor high-school students.

Student research philosophy

Our philosophy is teamwork. Our projects are all interconnected and require synchrony among all team members. Students joining our lab are expected to work as part of a team. New students will be trained to independently perform their assigned research tasks. Our lab personnel will also guide the students in the submission of abstracts to relevant scientific conferences and in the application to graduate and medical schools. We emphasize that classwork is the focus for our undergraduate students and therefore are flexible with time commitment, especially during midterms and finals. Undergraduate students are expected to perform well in their classwork.

To apply/Contact information

To apply please send an email to Gabriel O. Sawakuchi at gsawakuchi@mdanderson.org and Simona F. Shaitelman at sfshaitelman@manderson.org with a brief resume highlighting any relevant college or high school coursework and any previous experience in lab courses or research. No previous experience is required to apply. Please, visit our website to know more about our research:

www.mdanderson.org/sawakuchiLab

From the website (for more information see https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern/)

The Lunar and Planetary Institute invites undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit to experience cutting-edge research in the lunar and planetary sciences. Students with majors in a physical or natural science, engineering, computer science, or mathematics are preferred, but all eligible students will be considered.

The 10-week program runs from June 6–August 12, 2022. Summer interns will work one-on-one with a scientist from the LPI or the NASA Johnson Space Center on a research project. Interns are selected by the project advisors who look for academic excellence and scientific interest and backgrounds compatible with their specific project needs.

Given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 internship program may be held in person, virtually, or as a combination of those formats. Selected participants will be notified in March 2022 of the internship format. Interns participating in person will be located either at the Lunar and Planetary Institute or the NASA Johnson Space Center, both in Houston, Texas.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships for Physics and Astronomy Majors

including the Thomas A. Trombello Award, the Harold E. Rorschach Memorial Scholarship, and the G.C. Phillips Memorial Scholarship for work in the T.W. Bonner Nuclear Laboratory

Award will be $5,500 for a nominal 10-week period

Application Due Date: Monday, April 12, 2021

Application materials include:

1. a cover page listing:
   1. proposal title
   2. your name
   3. your email address
   4. your research advisor
   5. your academic year (freshman, sophomore, junior)
   6. length of time you have worked with the advisor if any
   7. whether you plan to continue this research for a senior thesis if you are currently a junior
2. a one-page summary outlining the proposed research experience, prepared in consultation with your proposed P&A faculty mentor, including a general overview accessible to a non-specialist, a description of the specific topic you will study and how it connects to the big picture, a description of what you will be doing, and a discussion of what you hope to learn.
3. an unofficial transcript

E-mail all materials to Prof. Geurts (geurts@rice.edu)

The Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) will host a virtual ten week Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program where students work collaboratively on a wide variety of computational science projects. Each student receives a stipend of $8,000. Twelve students will be selected.

Qualifications:
Undergraduate, community college student, or high school senior attending college in the fall, interested in a major that is within the computational sciences umbrella (leaves out few majors as it includes all sciences, mathematics, engineering, finance, statistics, etc.) with at least a 2.75 GPA, considering a career in research and/or graduate school in your major, being a US citizen or permanent resident, and graduating at least one semester after completion of the REU.

Important Dates:
   February 28, 2021: Application deadline.
   March 20, 2021: Notification of decision.
   May 24, 2021 through July 30, 2021: Program dates.

The research activities of the CCT are organized into five Focus Areas: Core Computing Sciences, Coast to Cosmos, Material World, Cultural Computing, and System Science and Engineering. These are broad, and sometimes overlapping areas where faculty from diverse departments (Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Civil Engineering, Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Petroleum Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computing Engineering, Music, Business, etc.) collaborate in multidisciplinary projects. Our REU students learn how to use some of the nation’s largest supercomputers, may participate in the setup and management of large-scale simulations, and may take on an important role in the analysis and visualization of the simulation results.

For more information and to apply, visit:  http://reu.cct.lsu.edu/
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The LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, is an innovative research environment, advancing computational sciences, technologies and the disciplines they touch. Researchers at CCT use the advanced cyberinfrastructure – high-speed networks, high-performance computing, advanced data storage and analysis and hardware and software development – available on campus to enable research in many different fields. By uniting researchers from diverse disciplines, ideas and expertise are disseminated across LSU departments to foster knowledge and invention. For more information on the CCT, visit:  http://www.cct.lsu.edu.

OURI is now accepting applications for our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)! Accepted fellows receive $3,000 for mentored research, design, or creative work conducted with a Rice Faculty member. Rice undergraduates from ALL disciplines are invited to apply to the summer 2021 cohort. Priority deadline is March 22, 2021.

Who is eligible? If you are a current undergraduate student from an underrepresented or under-resourced background, looking to get started in research at Rice, and planning to enroll full-time in Fall 2021.

Not sure where to start? Browse our list of over 20 potential SURF mentors* to see if there is a project that interests you.

Have questions? Program and application questions can be sent to Corin Bauman, SURF program coordinator, cb63@rice.edu.

*Note: Potential mentors are not limited to this list. Applicants can apply with any Rice-affiliated mentor who will mentor the student in a summer research project.