Student Intern

Job Description

About Company

NYU Grossman School of Medicine is recognized as one of the nation’s top-ranked medical schools, boasting a 175-year history of training physicians and scientists who have significantly influenced medical history and improved countless lives. It is an integral part of NYU Langone Health. At its core, the Grossman School of Medicine is dedicated to enhancing the human condition through medical education, scientific research, and direct patient care.

NYU Langone Health places a strong emphasis on equity and inclusion, striving to create an environment where its exceptionally talented faculty, staff, and students of all identities can thrive. The institution embraces inclusion, valuing individual skills, ideas, and knowledge. They are committed to supporting their workforce with a comprehensive benefits and wellness package, offering robust support for career development, family planning, and retirement savings. This includes financial security benefits, a generous time-off program, employee resource groups for peer support, and a holistic employee wellness program focusing on seven key areas: physical, mental, nutritional, sleep, social, financial, and preventive care. NYU Grossman School of Medicine is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusion in all aspects of recruiting and employment.

For more information, you can visit med.nyu.edu and engage with them on social media platforms including LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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About the Job

Position Summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join the team as a Student Intern. This role provides students with a valuable chance to apply their developing knowledge and skills in clinical research. Interns will gain a deeper understanding of the pressures influencing decision-making in today’s healthcare environment and identify additional skills necessary for a rewarding career in clinical research.

Job Responsibilities

The Student Intern will assist with various projects, primarily focusing on cell-free DNA and pharmacogenomics, working closely under the direct supervision of a PI (Principal Investigator), Sr. Research Scientist, Biostatistician, and other research staff. The key responsibilities include:

• Cell-Free DNA Projects (Summer Focus):
• Bioinformatics Pipeline Development: Contribute to developing foundational bioinformatics pipelines to process and analyze sequencing data (FASTA, FASTQ, SAM/BAM). A specific focus will be on mitochondrial variant calling and contamination filtering in cell-free DNA.
• Tool Utilization: Leverage tools such as GATK (Mutect2, Liftover, MergeVCFs, Contamination Filters) to generate high-quality VCF outputs.
• Automation and Workflow Building: Build automation and data workflows using shell scripting (Bash), GitHub version control, and WDL (Workflow Description Language) to streamline variant calling tasks and alignments across multiple reference systems. Familiarity with execution wrappers for Spark and cloud-based GATK tools is involved.
• AI Applications in Genomics: Explore cutting-edge AI applications in genomics by reviewing and contextualizing foundation models like Evothat, which generalize across DNA, RNA, and protein structures.
• Language Models Integration: Investigate the integration of long-context language models with biological sequence data for enhanced interpretability.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate in cross-functional research to evaluate DNA sequencing technologies (ONT, Illumina), troubleshoot pipeline inconsistencies, and apply AI techniques to biological datasets in a computational genomics setting.

• Screening and Pharmacogenomic Tasks:
• Pharmacogenomic Screening: Assist with conducting pharmacogenomic screening using PharmGKB to map gene-drug-variant associations, supporting personalized medicine approaches for immunosuppression in xenotransplantation patients.
• CPIC Guidelines Utilization: Under supervision, help support the utilization of CPIC guidelines to interpret diplotypes and determine drug dosing recommendations, ensuring variant-informed therapeutic decision-making.
• Genomic Data Integration: Aid in the integration of genomic variant data with clinical protocols by cross-referencing identified mutations against CPIC-published drug guidelines to optimize immunosuppressive treatment plans.

Minimum Qualifications

• The student intern must be a full-time student, or if working during the summer months (Mid-May through Mid-September), must be planning to return to full-time status in the fall.
• Qualified candidates must possess the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the organization.

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $16.50 – $20.00 Hourly. Actual salaries may vary based on factors such as experience, specialty, education, and hospital need. This range does not include bonuses/incentives, differential pay, or other forms of compensation or benefits.