The Type of Student Researcher We Are Looking For:
We are looking for innovative, resourceful and adventurous students who enjoy learning new things, meeting new people, and being part of an open, collaborative team. Undergraduate students interested in exploring research in our lab are welcome to send their resume, unofficial transcript, current class schedule, and a cover letter with a paragraph or two about themselves, their future career goals, and a brief description of what they hope to learn to Dr. Chi-Min Ho at ch3516@cumc.columbia.edu. We’re excited to meet you!
Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of the Principal Investigator and other members of the lab, the undergraduate research intern will provide assistance in projects involving cloning and culturing blood-stage P. falciparum parasites for cryo-FIB/SEM milling and cryoelectron tomography of the host-pathogen interface in parasite-infected red blood cells, or computational image processing of cryoEM and cryoET micrographs.
Responsibilities Also Include:
- Maintaining and culturing P. falciparum parasites for structural studies
- Purifying protein complexes from P. falciparum parasites for structural studies
- Preparing frozen and fixed samples for scanning, transmission, and fluorescence microscopy
- Segmenting tomographic images and picking and curating particles for structure determination of malarial proteins by cryoEM and cryoET
- Installing and learning how to use new image processing programs written in Python, C++ and/or MATLAB
- Writing new scripts or code in Python or MATLAB for various image processing steps
Qualifications:
- Previous experience in molecular biology, tissue culture, and/or microscopy is a plus
- Previous experience in Python, C++, and/or MATLAB is a plus.
- Strong communication, interpersonal and organizational skills, and excellent attention to detail is required
Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.