Summer Students

The 2010 Schwartz Lab summer student program came to a successful conclusion in August with presentations by six students in front of lab staff, mentors and family members.  Each student worked with one or more senior members of the lab on an individual project and the 15 minute PowerPoint presentations represented a culmination of their findings and experience throughout the summer.

We are currently seeking college students or recent college graduates to join the Schwartz Lab during the summer of 2011.  Internships typically range from 8-12 weeks between May and August.  Strong interest in a future science career is required and basic laboratory experience is preferred.  Please contact us for more information.

2010 Students

Jenni Adams

Jenni is a junior at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts with a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology, and a minor in Spanish.  Jenni has worked in various labs since high school, researching biophysics, developmental biology and biochemistry. She worked last summer with Ivana Yang on the gene discovery in innate immunity project. In summer 2010, she worked with Tim Bedient on the characterization of the Hermansky-Pudlak 4 gene (HPS4) in patients with familial and sporadic pulmonary fibrosis. Eventually she hopes to attend medical school and manage a research lab of her own.

David Bluestein

David is entering his junior year at Earlham College in Indiana where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. Before college, he attended Buxton High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts for four years and has worked at Shoals Marine Biology lab in Durham, New Hampshire.  His summer project involved working with Judy Oakes and Brian O'Connor to both optimize a protocol for IgG specific enzyme-linked immunoabsobant assays and to compare IgG1 and IgG2 levels in sera from mice with different environmental exposures.  He also assisted Laura Warg with genotyping mice for use in a number of studies.

Megan Bonney

Megan graduated in the spring of 2010 with a degree in biology from University of Northern Colorado.  Her summer project involved utilizing Comprehensive High-Throughput Arrays for Relative Methylation (CHARM) to determine if significant genes are differentially methylated in early and late progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.  She worked with Beth Davidson, Corinne Hennessy, and Ivana Yang.  She is interested in continuing her research in the epigenetics of various human diseases.  Megan is now working full-time in the Schwartz Lab as a Biomedical Research Trainee.

Rachel Burton

Rachel is starting her fourth year as a biochemistry major at the University of Denver.  She is interested in continuing her research in genetics and also hopes to become a physician's assistant.  Rachel has been working in the Schwartz Lab since January 2010 under the direction of Judy Oakes and Laura Warg, looking at ozone and how it affects the immune system.  Specifically, she has been exposing murine macrophages to ozone and then a single-stranded RNA viral PAMP mimic to see how it affects cytokine production and toll-like receptor distribution.

Sampada Joshee

Sampada graduated from University of Colorado at Boulder in December 2009 with a major in biochemistry and a minor in chemistry.  She has varied lab experience, including a summer internship at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  For her summer project, Sampada worked with Max Seibold to develop a protocol to look at cell-specific expression of mucin genes in the lung.

Elena Volsky

Elena is a senior at the University of Colorado at Denver, working toward her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in biology.  She has always been interested in the medical field and finally decided to become a nurse after earning her undergraduate degree. Working at National Jewish Health has provided her with valuable experience as well as more knowledge on genetics and how it affects the human body.  Her summer project involved working with Jennifer Cotter on identifying polymorphisms in several genes that are believed to be interrelated with the disease Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IDF).