The Barad lab uses cryo-electron tomography to understand how cells reorganize themselves in response to bacterial infection. Interns will be trained in and will perform mammalian cell culture and infection experiments as well as tomographic data processing including tilt series alignment and segmentation to help quantify the shapes of lipid bilayers within tomograms. Interns with background and interest in programming will have the opportunity to experiment with novel ways to make measurements of organelle geometry inside cells.

The Beatty lab is using chemical biology and protein design to explore protein organization across size scales.  To do this, we use genetic tags, called VIP Tags.  These tags enable us to label and observe proteins on microscopes.  Students working on this project will learn molecular biology, protein purification, labelign chemistries, microscopy, and image analysis.

The Cohen Lab is interested in two main areas: 1. uncovering new roles for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) regulation in cells and 2. elucidating the function of ADP-ribosylation, catalyzed by enzymes known as PARPs that use NAD⁺ as a substrate. The summer project will focus on using novel inhibitors of PARPs to explore the functions of ADP-ribosylation in cancer and immune cells.

The focus of Dr. DeBarber’s research over the last decade has been characterizing small molecule biomarkers in rare genetic disorders of cholesterol synthesis, including the neurodegenerative disease cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX). For example, the laboratory has identified biomarkers useful for improved clinical diagnostic testing for CTX and for monitoring the efficacy of therapy in this disease. In CTX, cholestanol (and cholesterol) accumulate in xanthomas in the brain and, left untreated, the disease may result in irreversible neurological damage, cognitive disability, dementia and premature death. Treatment with Efavirenz may help remove cholestanol from the brain in patients affected with CTX but there is currently no way to assess efflux of cholestanol from the brain. The goal for this project will be to develop and validate a plasma assay to measure cholestanol efflux from the brain that may be useful for a clinical trial of Efavirenz.

The Habecker lab is studying nerves that control the heart. We are trying to understand how neuron-heart interactions during injury and disease contribute to bad outcomes and are asking if we can fix nerves to prevent cardiac damage. We have several different types of projects available to match student interest.

Dr. Morgans is a retinal neuroscientist. Her lab investigates molecular mechanisms at the first synapses in the visual system, those between photoreceptors and bipolar cells in the retina. This summer project aims to identify retinal bipolar cell proteins that are regulated by phosphorylation. Techniques used will include immunoprecipitation, western blotting, and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy.

The lab of Carsten Schultz currently works on pancreatic extracellular signaling, protease activity as a marker for cancer and lung inflammation, the development of novel lipid tools to analyze lipid-interactomes in virus-infected cells and patients and intracellular lipid metabolism and trafficking. The lab uses a combination of organic chemistry, molecular biology and live-cell and tissue slice imaging.