Greenhill Grad Chosen for Respected Science Internship
Bar Harbor, Maine—Judith Vasquez, Greenhill School class of 2008, has been selected to participate in this year’s installment of The Jackson Laboratory’s Summer Student Program. The prestigious program draws high school and undergraduate students to the coast of Maine for an intensive, hands-on learning experience. For eight weeks, Vasquez will study bioinformatics under the guidance of a staff scientist.
In Janan Eppig, Ph.D.’s laboratory, Judith will be writing a program to find candidate genes for quantitative trait loci. A quantitative trait is one that varies in degree, such as height, weight or metabolic rate, and is determined by many genes. The regions that contribute to the expression of quantitative traits are called quantitative trait loci, and Judith’s work will aid in their identification.
Vasquez will be entering Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall, where she plans to study physics. Her summer at Jackson should be good preparation for her collegiate education and future research. “Informatics is relevant in any branch of science,” she explains.
Judith joins 28 other college and high school students in this summer research opportunity. Their individual projects vary from genomics to development to bioinformatics.
Participants reside at Highseas, a nearby century-old mansion, and revel in the many opportunities that Mount Desert Island offers. Weekend camping trips, spontaneous hikes throughout Acadia National Park and a white water rafting adventure complement their time spent uncovering new data in the lab.
Since its inception in 1924, the Summer Student Program has led many students into the world of professional research. Eighty-percent of the program?s more than 2,200 alumni have gone on to successful careers in medicine or biomedical research. Two particular program graduates, Drs. David Baltimore and Howard Temin, received the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The summer interns are an integral part of the Jackson Laboratory?s operation, providing fresh perspectives and keen enthusiasm.
The Jackson Laboratory (www.jax.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institution and National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center based in Bar Harbor, Maine. Its mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community.
Contact: Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058
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