The Barad lab uses cryo-electron tomography to understand how cells reorganize themselves in response to bacterial infection. Interns will be trained in and will perform mammalian cell culture and infection experiments as well as tomographic data processing including tilt series alignment and segmentation to help quantify the shapes of lipid bilayers within tomograms. Interns with background and interest in programming will have the opportunity to experiment with novel ways to make measurements of organelle geometry inside cells.

The Cohen Lab is interested in two main areas: 1. uncovering new roles for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) regulation in cells and 2. elucidating the function of ADP-ribosylation, catalyzed by enzymes known as PARPs that use NAD⁺ as a substrate. The summer project will focus on using novel inhibitors of PARPs to explore the functions of ADP-ribosylation in cancer and immune cells.

The Habecker lab is studying nerves that control the heart. We are trying to understand how neuron-heart interactions during injury and disease contribute to bad outcomes and are asking if we can fix nerves to prevent cardiac damage. We have several different types of projects available to match student interest.

The Gupta Lab research program broadly focuses on delineating the role of membrane proteins in human health and disease. We use biochemistry, biophysics, and assay development to characterize macromolecules of interest. We utilize the power of imaging at various scales via optical microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to correlate molecular events with their cellular and physiological context. Students will learn to use many transferrable research tools.

The Lobingier Lab studies a family of signaling receptors, called GPCRs, involved in drug abuse and mental health. We seek to understand how these GPCRs function at a cellular and molecular level under normal conditions and how these processes go awry following chronic drug exposure. 

The Shyng Lab is interested in understanding how a class of ion channels called K_ATP channels sense metabolic changes to control physiological processes such as hormone secretion, neuronal activity, and muscle contraction, how mutations in these channels cause disease, and how to treat diseases caused by dysfunction of these channels. We use a multidisciplinary approach that combines molecular biology, protein biochemistry, cell biology, electrophysiology, and structural biology.