iCM Summer Internship Program

The 2020 iCM Summer Internship is CANCELLED

as of 23rd March due to COVID-19 

- PLEASE DO NOT APPLY -

These places will be added to the 2021 & 2022 programs

 

Summer Internship Programme in Integrative Cell Mechanisms 

Spend nine weeks – 22 June to 21 August 2020 – experiencing life as an interdisciplinary scientist.

 

Background and Aims of the Programme 

The Summer Internship Programme in Integrative Cell Mechanisms (iCM) is closely associated with the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology and will provide lab-based experience and training for budding cell and molecular biologists in the application of quantitative methods to understand the inner workings of cells.

 

A detailed understanding of normal cellular function is required to investigate the molecular cause of disease and design future treatments. However, data generated by biological research requires increasingly complex analysis with technological advances in sequencing, mass spectrometry/proteomics, super-resolution microscopy, synthetic and structural biology generating increasingly large, complex datasets. In addition to this, innovations in computer sciences and informatics are transforming data acquisition and analysis and breakthroughs in physics, chemistry and engineering allow the development of devices, molecules and instruments that drive the biological data revolution. 

 

Exploiting technological advances to transform our understanding of cellular mechanisms will require scientists who have been trained across the distinct disciplines of natural sciences, engineering, informatics and mathematics. The iCM summer internship programme addresses this training need and will help prepare participants to be successful in a variety of PhD programmes. 

 

Applications are encouraged from students with a variety of backgrounds including Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Computational Data Sciences, Engineering, Genetics, Mathematics, Molecular Biology and Physics. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive research environment. Applications from members of groups typically under-represented in STEM are particularly encouraged.

 

Programme Details

Six undergraduate students preparing for their final year of university will be select as a cohort to start their summer internships on 22 June until 21 August 2020.  They will be hosted in one of the iCM  associated research groups to undertake research projects that develop expertise in both biological and quantitative sciences. 

 

Cell Mechanism projects cover topics such as anti-microbial resistance, stochastic heterogeneity, epigenetic and chromatin-based regulation, control of gene expression, non-coding RNA and RNA processing, chromosome structure and segregation, cell-cycle and cell growth regulation. The definition of ‘quantitative’ is broad and includes Computational Data Sciences, Mathematics, Biophysics, Structural Biology, Chemical Biology and Biomaterials.

 

Students should indicate three projects/supervisor pairs that they would be interested in working with - listed in order of preference in the space provided on the application form (available below). 

 

Examples of potential project titles and supervisors
Project title Supervisors
Single-molecule microscopy to interrogate binding of the Cas9 enzyme in different chromatin contexts Robin Allshire, Meriem El Karoui
Rest and reactivation in a major fungal pathogen: quantitative analysis of gene regulation in growth-state transitions Elizabeth Bayne, Edward Wallace
Using cryo-EM to quantify the binding of MeCP2 to chromatin Adrian Bird, Marcus Wilson
Genetics, molecular biology and mathematical modelling to understand how mammalian cells deal with gene dosage in S-phase Sara Buonomo, Ramon Grima
Building a temporal proteomics map of the developing C. elegansnervous system Dhanya Cheerambathur, Tony Ly

Using CRISPR genetics, synthetic biology and physical modelling to understand mitotic chromatin compaction

William Earnshaw, Nick Gilbert
Unravelling and modelling mechanisms that control noise in gene expression using RNA-binding proteins in S. cerevisiae Sander Granneman, Peter Swain
Structure-driven dissection and inhibition of mitotic regulators in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans Kevin Hardwick, JP Arulanandam
State of the art sequencing and analytical approaches to unravel centromere organisation Patrick Heun, Chris Ponting
Decoding mechanical tension at centromeres during chromosome segregation Adele Marston, Andrew Goryachev
Towards a molecular understanding of piRNA-instructed transposon methylation Donal O’Carroll, Atlanta Cook
Shaping the meiotic spindle by phase separation Hiro Ohkura, Cait MacPhee
Visualizing protein function and malfunction in live cells: Application of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy to biologically and bio-medically important processes Lynne Regan, Mathew Horrocks
Deciphering the SPOTs complex; understanding the cellular regulation of sphingolipid metabolism Susan Rosser, Dominic Campopiano
3D modeling of changes in genome architecture in development and disease Eric Schirmer, Davide Marenduzzo
Cotranscriptional features that determine RNA fate David Tollervey, Guido Sanguinetti
A degron-nanobody fusion platform to decode kinase–regulated cellular  pathways Malcolm Walkinshaw, Alison Hulme
Defining and predicting the molecular basis for male infertility Julie Welburn, Joseph Marsh

 

Eligibility

Applicants should be entering their final year of study for a BSc or equivalent in 2020/21 and be on track for a first or upper second class honours degree in a relevant subject. 

Applications are encouraged from individuals from a wide range of backgrounds who have studied a variety of subjects including Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Computational Data Sciences, Engineering, Genetics, Mathematics, Molecular Biology and Physics. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive research environment. Applications from members of groups typically under-represented in STEM are particularly encouraged.

 

Applicants should have a good knowledge of spoken and written English - similar to those stipulated for PhD student applicants on the University of Edinburgh website at www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/english 

 

Our summer internships are international and are open to undergraduate students of any nationality studying at any university.  Applicants must be available from 22 June to 21 August 2020. International students can only be accepted if appropriate VISAs can be arranged in time for them to arrive in Edinburgh to start their internship on 22 June 2020.

 

There are places for six summer internship students. Because the programme includes cohort activities, all students must be able to participate in the programme, in Edinburgh, from 22 June to 21 August 2020.

 

Payment and Travel Allowance

Each iCM summer student will receive a total stipend of £3255 for 9 weeks. The ICM summer internship programme will also provide a travel allowance of up to £700 for each student for economy return travel from their home base to Edinburgh and back to their home base.

Application Procedure

CANCELLED as of 23rd March due to COVID-19 

PLEASE DO NOT APPLY

 

Completed Application forms and Referee's forms (click to download from above) must be emailed to: phd.wcb@ed.ac.uk

Application Deadline: CANCELLED due to COVID-19