Top High School Students to Perform Scientific Research at UA

The program will run from June 8 to July 16 in various labs at the BIO5 Institute and the College of Pharmacy.

Thanks to generous statewide support, 22 exceptional southern Arizona high school students will have the chance to gain hands-on experience with the biosciences and environmental health science this summer during the annual KEYS (Keep Engaging Youth in Science) Internship Program.

The University of Arizona's BIO5 Institute and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, known as SWEHSC, at The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy direct the program.

A total of $18,000 in outside funding was secured from a variety of sources to continue the KEYS program following budget cuts earlier this year.

Contributors included the Arizona Department of Education, Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals, the iPlant Collaborative, The Harpel Company and a number of private donors.

This year's students are from Tucson-area high schools, including Pueblo, Catalina, University, Sunnyside, Salpointe, Empire, St. Gregory's, Basis, Catalina Foothills and Marana. The students were chosen competitively from 58 applicants.

Students' internship experiences will include a week-long training institute and then research under the mentorship of UA investigators and graduate students, which will culminate in presentations to their peers and the public in a poster session.

They also will attend weekly seminars to discuss their experiences and practice science communication skills.

The students have selected research focus areas such as genetics/molecular biology, pharmacology/toxicology and computational biology/bioinformatics.

More than 20 UA researchers, including Arizona Genomics Institute director Rod Wing and SWEHC director Serrine S. Lau, will host the students in their laboratories.