CRISPr is a ten-week long high school cancer research internship run by the WashU Cancer Research Club. We have partnered with the WashU Biology Department and the Siteman Cancer Center to provide opportunities for passionate high school students to work in biomedical research labs. Students will have the opportunity to gain experience in a STEM lab, meet like-minded students, and build skills in scientific and oral communication. In preparation for this summer internship, we have also prepared a series of workshops aimed at teaching students about cancer biology, lab etiquette, and scientific literature.
Interested?
Fill out this interest form to be added to our mailing list for the spring workshops and summer program application. Contact wucancerresearch@gmail.com with any questions!
Program Details
Students who are selected for the program will:
- Be paired with a mentor and work in a cancer research lab for roughly 40 hours a week at the WashU School of Medicine.
- Receive a $4,800 stipend.
- Participate in weekly meetings with other high school participants and CRC exec. members to discuss lab experiences, continue to develop scientific reading and presentation skills, and build connections with similarly minded peers.
- Present their work at the end-of-program research symposium.
Program Timeline
These workshops, detailed below, are meant to prepare interested students for the summer research internship. Interest in the summer program is not required to attend these workshops, but participation in workshops will be included in the selection criteria of the summer interns. For students who are not able to watch the workshops live, we have made it possible to demonstrate engagement through asynchronous Google Form surveys below.
March 10, 2025: Latest date the written application will be released
March 31, 2025: Application due
April 14, 2025: Application decisions released
June 2-August 8, 2025: Summer internship, culminating in an end-of-program symposium
Eligibility
Participants in the CRISPr program must be:
- Sixteen years or older by June 2025
- Available for the entire duration of the program (June 2 – August 8, 2025)
- Attend a St. Louis area high school
- Have housing and transportation for the duration of the program
- Apply by the deadline (March 31, 2025)
Application Criteria
The CRC executive team and principal investigators for each lab will review applications to make final decisions. No previous research experience is required or expected. Students from historically underrepresented backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply. Selection for the summer research internship will consider the following (all components are required):
- Written application – four short responses to questions
- High school transcript
- Letter of recommendation
- Participation in the spring workshops (synchronous highly preferred but asynchronous accepted)
Application
The application will be available here once released.
Spring Workshops
These workshops are aimed at preparing students for working in a professional cancer research lab. Slides and recordings will be added for asynchronous viewing. If you cannot attend the live Zoom and would still like to demonstrate participation in these workshops, please fill out the accompanying Google Form as you watch the recording. The topics for the Spring 2025 workshops will be updated in January 2025, and will be very similar to those held in Spring 2024, which are included below as examples. We expect to host workshops for Spring 2025 over Zoom during the weeks of Feb 10, Feb 17, Feb 24, Mar 3, Mar 17, Mar 24 (there will be no workshop the week of Mar 10). Exact dates and times are TBD and will be posted in January 2025. To receive the link to attend the live Zoom, fill out our interest form to be added to our mailing list.
Lesson #1: Basics of Cancer
February 13th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
We will spend this first lesson introducing the basic biology behind the fundamental ideas of cancer. We will be reviewing terms and topics such as mutagens, apoptosis, and cell division!
Lesson #2: Cancer Treatments
February 19th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
We will be reviewing the wide array of cancer types. We will delve into different types of sarcomas, leukemias, and carcinomas. We will learn how they arise, common patient symptoms, and current treatments!
Lesson #3: Scientific Literature
February 27th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
We will be introducing our students to the language of scientific research: scientific literature. We will learn how to read and interpret a scientific article and how to know if a scientific article is trustworthy.
Lesson #4: Cancer Research Experiments
March 4th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
We will learn about many of the techniques that are used in laboratories to study cancer. We will understand how to culture cells, quantify protein concentration, detect specific gene sequences, and more. We will also focus on how scientists design experiments and why they use certain techniques over others.
Lesson #5: Journal Club
March 19th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
We will discuss an article from one of the CRISPr host lab principal investigators, Dr. Jessica Silva-Fisher. We will use the knowledge we have gained about cancer biology and lab techniques, along with skills we learned about reading scientific literature, to analyze an example of cutting-edge research!
Lesson #6: Guest Speaker
March 25th, 2024, 4-5 p.m. CST
In our final workshop, a CRISPr host lab principal investigator will discuss their career path and current projects. In past years, Dr. Milan Chheda has shared his path to becoming a physician-scientist and his lab’s research!
Thank you to our partners in running this program:
