Program Description
The Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology offers individuals interested in furthering their research skills the opportunity to complete a research internship in a biomedical research laboratory.
The goals of this program are to provide interns with practical experience in biomedical research and to help them gain an understanding of recent advances in pharmacological research through interactions with faculty and postdoctoral fellows within the department. Research activities will be customized for each intern’s specific interests and educational goals. Each internship will last at least two months after safety training but no more than six months, and will be on an unpaid volunteer basis. Each intern will be assigned a departmental faculty mentor, please contact the faculty for field of interest.
Educational Experience
Opportunity to work directly with a faculty mentor and lab members within a flexible schedule:
- Conduct research on a specific aspect of a project;
- Learn specific techniques needed for the research project;
- Learn how to maintain a research notebook;
- Learn how to analyze actual research data statistically;
- Read relevant literature for the project;
- Learn to develop your own experimental research designs and protocols;
- Participate in laboratory research meetings and attend departmental research seminars;
- Receive Biosafety and Laboratory Safety training with the possibility of animal training;
- Present your project, write a report and discuss what you learned at a lab meeting near the end of the internship.
Program Eligibility
- Non-Emory undergraduate in good academic standing, post-baccalaureate or post-graduate;
- At least 18 years old;
- Strong interest in pursuing a biomedical research career.
Program Objectives
The Pharmacology and Chemical Biology Research Internship Program supports the School of Medicine’s missions of teaching and scholarship, as well as the intern’s progress towards a career in biomedical research. Towards these objectives the program will:
- Provide a research experience that may help students evaluate their interest and potential in a biomedical research career;
- Provide opportunities to learn and gain practical training in the use of current research techniques.
Program Requirements
- No work is permitted with animals or hazardous materials as defined by EHSO level 2, except under close immediate supervision by qualified faculty or senior staff after the intern completes the required safety and animal training.
- The research intern will not replace a regularly paid staffing need. The work of project staff would continue without the participation of interns.
- Each internship requires the approval of the program director and department chair.
Program Evaluation
- The program will be directed by Dr. Edward Morgan and annually reviewed by Drs. Morgan and Dingledine.
- The department HR Manager (Ms. Olga Rivera) will maintain a database of internships including evaluations.
- The department HR Manager will be responsible for ensuring that required regulatory and safety trainings are completed before research activities begin. The HR Manager will meet personally with each intern approximately halfway through the internship to discuss the process and value of this program.
- Upon completion of the internship each intern will be evaluated by the faculty mentor and in turn have a structured exit interview with the department administrator.
- Measures will be reviewed annually that ensure interns do not displace a current employee serving in a paid position, replace a past employee who served in a paid position, or impair the employment of an employee holding a paid position at Emory. For example, a faculty member cannot:
- Recruit an intern with responsibilities that overlap an existing open position, or
- Hire a technician to replace the intern’s responsibilities within 3 months of the end of the internship.