FIWH and FISH, institutes of FUS, a not-for-profit organization, seeks to provide excellent, hands-on, and multi-disciplinary educational training for the next generation of scientists.

FIWH provides and coordinates global health-focused educational trainings and experiences for committed and dedicated undergraduates with a secondary goal of fostering lifelong compassion and career connection to serve the unmet health needs of the neglected people of the world. By collaborating with pharmaceutical companies, major research universities, and their professional collaborators like the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), undergraduates are able to achieve the third goal of FIWH: to have an impact on improving global health. Within these collaborations, undergraduates are inserted into a critical step in the drug discovery process, pre-clinical research, where they work in real-time and with real impact on the preparation of new and improved drug therapies for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Since the summer of 2011, FIWH has coordinated an annual, unique, collaborative, NTD Research Program through an innovative partnership with AbbVie, Inc. During the summer months, this program ramps up in Chicago, Illinois and Steubenville, Ohio. Through this program, Franciscan undergraduates learn to work shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Rohde, undergraduates from other universities, AbbVie scientists, and not for profit, NTD partner scientists. Additionally, throughout the summer and the rest of the year, undergraduate leadership is encouraged, and opportunities are provided for practicing public speaking and training in scientific writing, preparation of slides and posters for scientific meetings, and coaching in resume writing and interview skills.

EDUCATION, INSPIRATION, IMPACT

EDUCATION:

Provide real-world research opportunities for undergraduates with hands-on training in the use of cutting-edge scientific laboratory techniques and equipment, in state-of-the-art facilities, and with experienced, professional scientists.

INSPIRATION:

Strive to instill a collaborative work mindset and a career-long passion for outreach for the poor and most underserved of the world by forming teams of undergraduates from multiple universities to work in unified efforts to find the best solutions to major health problems.

IMPACT:

Collaborate with academic, professional, and industrial leaders and organizations to ensure that the work and the efforts of our undergraduate teams are on the world’s critical path to finding real healthcare solutions to improve global health.

This initiative, in partnership with AbbVie for the thirteenth year, is coordinating and continuing to pioneer this unique medicinal chemistry learning opportunity for undergraduates for educational, humanitarian, and career learning purposes. The internship takes place at AbbVie in North Chicago, IL (halfway between Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI).

The program is a 12-week, 40 hour/week internship experience of collaborative research on Neglected Tropical Disease targets side-by-side with AbbVie Medicinal Chemists. The specific drug targets and collaborative projects for the summer will be determined in real time by AbbVie’s strategic partnerships with organizations like the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi, www.dndi.org) and TB Drug Accelerator (TBDA, https://www.tbdrugaccelerator.org). Interns will assume responsibility for a critical step in this global effort: preparing new small molecules as potential novel drug therapies.  Immersed in a state-of-the art scientific environment, students will learn to conduct medicinal chemistry research, follow, and evaluate experiments using spectroscopic services, record progress and results in an e-notebook, register compounds into AbbVie’s compound repository, and regularly give updates on their efforts in team meetings.  The summer will conclude for each intern with (1) a poster and/or oral summary presentation to the full project team and potentially to the larger company and (2) a performance evaluation of their summer work by their project supervisor.

Undergraduates at the invited institutions or by invitation are eligible to apply, including seniors committed to continued higher education in the sciences and/or medicine, who have or will have successfully completed a full year of introductory organic chemistry with lab before the summer of 2023. Preference will be given to Chemistry majors looking to enter graduate school or industry.

Interns will receive a competitive salary for the summer of 2023.

For any questions, please contact Dr. Jeffrey Rohde at [email protected].

May 22 – August 11, 2023

Prospective candidates must submit a resume, a current transcript (unofficial or official, including spring 2023 courses), a statement of reason for applying (200-500 word essay), and 2 letters of recommendation (sent directly from the recommender) to [email protected]. One of the letters of recommendation must be from one of the applicant’s organic chemistry course instructors.  The application period opens January 27, 2023. Review of complete application packages will begin on February 10, 2023 and continue until all positions are filled.