Jefferson#39;s Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology offers a summer internship for 3-4 undergraduate or graduate students (or recent graduates). Interns are supervised directly by one of the Division#39;s faculty members and have the opportunity to interact with other Division faculty and staff, as well as researchers across Jefferson.

Goals

Interns will have the opportunity to:

• Research statistical topics relevant to biomedical research.
• Apply statistical thinking to biomedical research problems.
• Analyze real-world biomedical data and interpret the results.
• Develop statistical programming skills in SAS, R, and other software.
• Develop and practice communication of statistical methods and results through written and oral presentations.
• Receive guidance and mentoring regarding their future studies and career trajectory.
• Bioinformatics students will work on cutting-edge areas of bioinformatics, including single-cell omics data analysis, machine learning, and systems biology approaches.

Components

The internship#39;s core is a mentored research project, and it is supplemented by a number of other components.

• Mentored research project. Interns work on individual projects, each under the supervision of a faculty member. The projects typically involve specification of the substantive research question(s) to be addressed, data management/cleaning, consideration of relevant statistical/bioinformatics methods, data analyses, and interpretation of results. The work is intended to promote critical and statistical thinking. Interns are expected to both apply their prior classroom knowledge and explore statistical/bioinformatics methods that they are not familiar with. At the end of the summer, interns deliver an oral presentation of their work (30 min presentation + 20 min discussion) and submit a brief written report (2-3 pages).
• Seminar/journal club attendance and presentation. Interns attend weekly seminars or journal club sessions. Each intern is expected to lead a journal club discussion of one published paper during the course of the internship.
• Clinical trial protocol review (optional for bioinformatics intern). Jefferson#39;s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center has a scientific protocol review committee that reviews all oncology clinical trial protocols before they are activated at Jefferson. Interns typically attend 2-3 committee meetings; each intern is expected to perform an informal review of a trial protocol under the guidance of a designated faculty member.
• Manuscript review. Interns perform a review of a manuscript submitted for publication, under the guidance of a designated faculty member.

Duration

• The internship duration is 8-10 weeks, typically from beginning of June to mid-August. However, start/end dates are flexible and are arranged before the start of the internship.
• The internship is intended to be full-time (40 hrs./week), although a part-time schedule (20 hrs./week) may be possible. The expected number of hours is arranged before the start of the internship and the schedule is stated in the letter/email of acceptance.

Stipend

• Interns are hired as employees and paid an hourly wage, whose level depends on the intern#39;s academic level and experience. The 2024 wage rate is,
  • $21/hr for undergraduate students.
  • $23/hr for master students, or students in Ph.D. program without a masterrsquo;s degree and in year 1 or 2 of program.
  • $24/hr for Ph.D. students with a masterrsquo; degree or in year 3 or later of program.
• Interns are paid bi-weekly for the duration of the internship.

Qualifications

Applicants should have interest in pursuing a career in (bio)statistics, bioinformatics/computational Biology, data science, or other similar quantitative field, with a focus on the biomedical sciences, and may be current students or recent graduates.

• For undergraduate students (or those with an undergraduate degree), any degree program is acceptable, but applicants should have strong mathematical (not required for bioinformatics students) and analytical skills and at least one course in computer programming.
• For graduate students (or those holding a graduate degree), the degree program should be (bio)statistics, bioinformatics/computational biology, computer science, or similar quantitative field.

Application

Please apply online, at

Applications are reviewed and requests for interviews are sent on a rolling basis. Deadline for submitting an application is February 15.

For more information, please contact Dr. Tingting Zhan (tingting.zhan@jefferson.edu).