Internship
2023 UCSF-Lowell Science Research Program Summer Interns
2022 UCSF-Lowell Science Research Program Summer Interns
Every summer, we host interns at various labs at UCSF! If you are interested in applying for the internship, the application is linked below. More information is available on Google Classroom.
The UCSF-Lowell Science Research Summer Internship Program is a collaboration between the Medical Scientist Training Program at UCSF and Lowell High School.
All Lowell students who are not current seniors are eligible to apply.
Students will be paired with UCSF faculty mentors to perform novel scientific research in UCSF laboratories.
How has LSRP impacted your life?
Maxwell Ho
Lowell Class of 2017. Currently at Harvard College, concentrating in Neurobiology.
“
The richness of LSRP goes beyond just biology. LSRP creates and changes passion, community, and social standards.
To me, LSRP has done far more than just taught me about biological processes and mechanisms. LSRP took my nebulous, unshaped passion and turned it into an experience that was real and refined my knowledge of what I could do for the world. LSRP gave me a community where I could share my love for biology, where I could meet like minded friends who I could learn from. And most importantly, LSRP breaks social standards, giving everyone: low-income students, women in science, first-generation students, and so on a step forward when they started off a step behind.
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I participated in LSRP throughout my junior and senior years of high school. Over the summer of 2012, I interned in the Bastian lab at UCSF, working with Xu Chen to study the role of palmitoylation of the protein GNAQ in cell signaling pathways involved in uveal melanoma. I was really excited by the theoretical aspects of my research, and by the potential health impacts.
On a more practical level, having early experience reading and trying to understand scientific papers has been incredibly valuable in my academic life. Beyond this, having a firsthand sense of what lab work looks and feels like gives me context for my work in theoretical biology.
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Caitlin Lienkaemper
Lowell ’13 Harvey Mudd '17
PhD Candidate in Math, Penn State
Andrew Chan,
a former graduate
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LSRP is what fills the gaps that Lowell really needs. Giving high school students a chance at learning about real science and working in a real research institution is a tough mountain to climb.
I was accepted to work as part of the Blelloch Lab as I did previously incorrect criticize his work. There, I was under the tutelage of Dr. Ronald Parchem. He spent time outside of his busy postdoctoral research to teach me more than I deserved to know about epiblasts, stem cell differentiation, and microRNA regulation of protein synthesis.
Too often, the hallowed halls of Lowell keep you trapped in a routine of focusing too much on school, but LSRP gave me a taste of what the real world was. This program taught me how to become more like an adult.
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LSRP was one of the most foundational experiences in building my interests. In the absence of close mentors, as was the case for me, it is really hard for a high schooler to understand what research and medicine is like. Yet, to be competitive and competent in these fields, it is essential that any interest is cultivated as soon as possible. LSRP was an environment that facilitated that by giving me access to mentors who taught me how to analyze scientific literature and a research internship. This is a unique experience that is a privilege I wish all young students can experience.
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Brian Chu,
Lowell '14 Stanford '18
Recently started medical school at UPenn on a full scholarship.
Jason Zhang,
Lowell '18
Current UC Berkeley student
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The Lowell Science Research Program was one of the most exciting organizations that I joined during my time at Lowell High School. The many researchers I had the privilege of meeting through LSRP inspired me with their passion for their work, and introduced me to a wide range of intriguing fields.
I was matched with a lab in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, where I investigated the role of short tandem repeats in Autism under the guidance of a post-doc. The research was an extremely rewarding experience, and I'm grateful that LSRP gave me that opportunity. Now a freshman at UC Berkeley studying BioEngineering, I'm cognizant of the role LSRP research played in my acceptance to a prestigious university, and armed with my experiences through LSRP, I feel confident in pursuing undergraduate research and using my knowledge to make a positive impact in our society.
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Prior to LSRP, I had zero experience with reading a research paper, let alone doing research in a lab. So I was really excited to be part of a group of people who hung out after school to learn more about and discuss cutting edge research. In those days, LSRP felt more like a journal club than a class. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join Dr. David Erle's lab for two summers and work on finding new regulatory elements in the 3' untranslated region. It was my first time in a research lab, and it was amazing. Even though I was still in high school, I was treated like a collaborator and not belittled for my lack of knowledge. David was very patient with me, teaching me about the nitty-gritty of molecular biological research, as well as the science behind the work I was doing. I think the real benefit of LSRP is that we high schoolers were exposed to the world of biomedical research with the understanding that yes, we had so much to learn, but we also had worthwhile ideas and contributions of our own even then.
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Grace Zhang,
Lowell '14 Middlebury '18
Currently working at Harvard Medical School's DNA Research Core facility as a research assistant/lab technician