Summer Interns
Each year, the Institute accepts Summer Interns who have an interest in science, currently studying at tertiary level, and are of the calibre to take on and benefit from a significant experience at the Malaghan Institute. The interns are assigned to one of the scientific research groups and given a specific project. Working with close direction from the Institute staff they are able to conduct meaningful work and learn what a career in research offers.
Summer Internships are usually advertised from October. Please check our vacancies for further information at this time.
Previous Summer Internships
2008/2009
Henry Hudson (BMedSci (3rd year)) "Effect of different cations on immune responses to urate crystals"
Neal Kerr (BSc (3rd year), MBChB (3rd year)) "The effect of high uric acid on MSU induced superoxide production by human neutrophils"
Taryn Osmond (BBmedSc) "Stress-related gene expression in cancer cells and immune cells"
Catherine Plunkett (BMedSci) "Imino sugars as inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis - synthesis and biological evaluation of a new class of Mycobacterial arabinan biosynthesis inhibitors"
Sarrabeth Stone (BBmedSc)
2007/2008
Nina Baker (BBmedSc, MBChB (3rd year)) "Characterisation of glioblastoma neurospheres using immunochemistry"
Peter Clark (BBmedSc (2nd year)) "Mycobacterial tuberculosis: a greasy bug(ger)"
Rosemary Harty (BBmedSc(Hons)) "Development of a virus neutralisation assay for respiratory syncytial virus"
Gregory Haslett (BSc (3rd year)) "A sweet solution to asthma and aza sugars for treatment of Tb"
Jacqui Kane Barber (BSc, BA) "Mycobacterial tuberculosis: a greasy bug(ger)"
Tommy Liu (BSc, Grad dip BBmedSc) "Peritoneal responses to MSU"
Victoria Taylor (MBChB (4th year)) "Characterising the phenotype of CD4+ T cell subsets in the protective immune response against Tuberculosis"
2006/2007
Sophie Robinson
A fourth year medical student, Sophie Robinson spent the summer of 2006/2007 within the Infectious Diseases Group working on the project "Identification of respiratory pathogens in nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) samples from infants hospitalised with Bronchiolitis (2003-2005)".
2005/2006
Rene McLaughlin
Rene is currently studying for a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, majoring in Human Genetics and Molecular Pathology. Over the summer Rene investigated potential reasons behind the increase in allergies in westernised countries. His project attempted to define which cytokines are responsible for the protective immune response caused by the body's reaction to mycobacteria.
Neil Fisher
Currently studying towards a GdipBMedSci, Neil spent the summer of 2005/2006 defining the allergenic properties of proteins secreted by parasites.
Yatika Jivan
Having completed a BBmedSc, and currently studying towards a MBChB (Medicine), Yatika spent the summer of 2005/2006 working on the project "Activation of anti-tumor CD8+ T cells in culture".
2003/2004
Pippa Jerram
Pippa, currently studying for an MBChB (Medicine), worked on the project “Stress responses of a GP96 gene knockout cell line”. The goal of the project was to investigate the significance of the association of GP96, a heat shock protein, with a cell surface NADH oxidoreductase involved in cancer cell energy metabolism.
Ben Revell
Ben, currently studying for an MBChB (Medicine), worked on the project “Optimisation of the cytometric cytokine bead array (CBA) for the detection of T cell cytokine production in allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients”. The goal of the project was to investigate if the CBA can detect human cytokines more effectively and with higher sensitivity than Intra-cytoplasmic flow cytometry or RNA analysis using real time PCR.
2002/2003
Anthony Fok
Having completed a postgraduate Diploma in Microbiology at Otago University, Anthony Fok spent the summer of 2002 investigating cell surface respiration in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Kylie Quinn
After three years of a Genetics Honours Degree at Otago University, Kylie joined the Malaghan Institute for the summer to study the use of Mycobacterial cell wall components to treat asthma.
Matt Levine
Matt Levine spent the summer of 2002/2003 as part of the Cancer Cell & Molecular Biology Group, working with human leukaemia cells. He was able to demonstrate that these cells do not require mitochondria to undergo differentiation, and that they may even differentiate faster without them.
Stephanie Matthews
Before starting her Honours year at Otago University, Stephanie Matthews spent the summer doing a research project entitled "Optimising a dendritic cell vaccine against melanoma" supervised by Dr Franca Ronchese and Dr Simon Prasad, of the Cancer Immunotherapy Group.
