How it works

BMSIP is a match making program that connects BU biological and biomedical investigators with BU Bioinformatics MS students seeking internships to complete their degree. Mentorship and project oversight is provided by a staff bioinformatics scientist in collaboration with the PI. Projects are chosen by a competitive proposal process in the spring and commence in the summer.

BMSIP connects basic, translational, and biomedical investigators who have bioinformatics needs with Bioinformatics MS students who need to perform internships to complete their degrees.

Investigators may submit proposals describing a discrete project idea that involves bioinformatics. The Bioinformatics Program provides a limited number of stipends to interns at BU labs and limited help with project mentorship and management. The BMSIP match making process is open to both internal and external internship projects, but stipends are only available for internal BU projects.

Suitable projects must meet the Bioinformatics MS program internship requirement: they are entirely computational, involve biological data analysis techniques covered by the Bioinformatics Master’s curriculum, and last at least 400 hours total. See the Project Criteria section on the Project page for more detailed information.

All projects that are suitable bioinformatics internship projects are advertised to the Bioinformatics MS students, and top candidates are connected with investigators for interviewing.

A subset of 6 to 10 projects selected by BMSIP scientists and staff are offered full intern stipend support and bioinformatics mentorship. Projects submitted by investigators with little or no prior experience or capabilities in genomics and high throughput biological data are prioritized for support.