June - August 2009
About the
Summer Research Internship Program
at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia School of Medicine offers summer research internship opportunities to qualified undergraduates who are considering a possible career in biomedical research. The program targets, but is not limited to, racially and ethnically diverse students in their junior and senior college undergraduate years. Funds for living expenses, travel to and from Charlottesville, and housing are provided.

The goals of the program are to expose undergraduate students to laboratory research, to familiarize them with the opportunities that exist for careers in biomedical research. The program runs for ten weeks each summer and includes three major components.
  1. The first and most important component involves a hands on research project with a faculty member where the student is exposed to contemporary methods and problems in biomedical research.
  2. The second component of the program includes a series of workshops in which students are exposed to a variety of advanced research techniques that they are unlikely to see in individual laboratories. This includes tours and demonstrations of some of the core research facilities at the University. Past workshops have included:
    • use of transmission and scanning electron microscopy
    • use of mass spectrometry to detect protein mass and amino acid sequence
    • use of the fluorescence activated cell sorter
  3. The third component includes a Distinguished Lecturer Series in which the students are exposed to a wide variety of research topics through seminars presented by internationally recognized scientists.

Our inaugural program was held in the summer of 1992. The program has recently hosted approximately 35 students each year.

The Summer Research Internship Program provides an outstanding environment to learn first hand about a career in biomedical research. Many of our former SRIP participants have matriculated into M.D./Ph.D. and Ph.D. programs, including at UVa.