The main focus of the mentor's research is the development of new methods for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and the application of this technique to a variety of chemical and biological problems. NMR spectroscopy is a highly informative technique that is one of the main analytical tools in the sciences, such as the determination of protein structures.
Motor proteins serve a number of functions in the cell, including helping to transport biological molecules (cargo) to where they belong. One such motor protein, dynein, is important for moving cargo from the periphery of cells toward the center and in human cells needs to partner with another protein (dynactin) to move cargo across long distances. The regulation of how these two proteins interact determines what, when, and where cargo molecules are transported. In this project, we will study how the interactions between these two proteins are regulated by changes in the structure of dynein using a variety of biophysical techniques.
The selected intern will help in generating and studying dynein and dynactin proteins. This will involve using recombinant protein expression (i.e., growing bacteria that produce the desired proteins) to generate the proteins, using a variety of biochemical techniques to purify the proteins, and then using a variety of biophysical techniques to analyze the proteins.
The intern will initially meet with the mentor to talk about the project, cover safety training, and to discuss basic lab techniques. They will be paired with an undergraduate student who will closely supervise their daily work in the laboratory.
Applicants must be done with school and able to start their internship by June 20th so they can finish their project by the end of July. This end date is earlier than typical ASE internships, but the selected intern will still be required to participate in the ASE Symposium on August 10th.
We strongly encourage students to apply who are from one or more systemically and historically excluded group, including but not limited to, non-cis-gendered students, girls, BIPOC, first-generation college bound students, low-income/low-resourced students, students with disabilities, who are neurodivergent, and those who speak a primary language other than English.
This internship will be taking place in-person, as permitted by Federal/State/Local/Lewis and Clark guidelines. To reduce the risks of coronavirus exposure, mentors and interns will act in accordance with applicable COVID guidelines and procedures. Selected applicants will be required to review and sign a waiver agreement. This lab has as a COVID-19 vaccination & booster requirement.
If you have any questions about the application, website technical issues and/or this position description, please contact Saturday Academy at ase@saturdayacademy.org. Do not contact the mentor directly. Contacting the mentor directly is grounds for disqualification of your ASE application.