Faculty Syllabus

• No prior coding experience needed — all skills will be taught during the internship
• Enthusiastic about learning and exploring biological research questions, and willing to work independently between meetings
• Access to a computer and a reliable internet connection

Students will be assigned articles to introduce them to RNA-sequencing tools, neuroscience and bioinformatics tools

Example Topics:

Brain Development
Investigate how gene activity changes as the brain grows and matures using mouse brain data from different stages of development.

Human Brain Regions
Explore how various areas of the human brain express different genes and learn what these differences can tell us about brain function and health.

Alzheimer’s and Aging
Analyze human brain data to discover how aging and Alzheimer’s disease influence brain cells and their communication.

This internship offers an opportunity to explore real-world biological data through bioinformatics. Hosted by the Biotechnology Department at Austin Community College (ACC), the program focuses on analyzing gene expression data from human and animal models of aging and disease. Students will gain practical skills in coding, data analysis, and scientific communication while learning how to investigate meaningful biological questions using large-scale datasets.

What You Will Learn:
• How to code using the R programming language
• How to find and analyze publicly available datasets (for example, from the Allen Institute)
• How to ask a biological question and design an analysis to answer it
• How to create visualizations to communicate your results effectively
• How to present your findings in a poster or oral presentation to an academic audience