Past Summer Internships

The Macromolecular Crystallography group at SSRL/SLAC accepts summer interns each year who are mentored by staff members and trained in crystallography methods, engineering, and software development.

Projects cover all aspects of structural biology research including engineering and design of new experimental equipment, protein crystallization, development of new macromolecular crystallography data collection methods, determining novel structures of enzymes and drug targets, applied artificial intelligence, website development, and control system automation.

High School girls that are interested in learning about scientific careers are encouraged to apply for the SAGE Summer Camp held each summer at SLAC.

The Macromolecular Crystallography group promotes women and minorities in science and receives interns through the following local (Direct Hires and STEM) and several National Programs though SLAC..
From left: Intern Nancy Fathali, SLAC Director Jonathan Dorfan, SULI Program Contact Helen Quinn, SMB scientists Aina Cohen and Paul Ellis at the 2002 graduation ceremony.
Year Intern Project Mentor(s) Program
2022 Rosario Avelar-Romo Migration from the Drupal website to the new Backdrop CMS website Mike Soltis
 Direct Hire
2022 Chelina Wong Implementation of a glove box UV-Vis microspectrophotometer to support anaerobic experiments Darya Marchany-Rivera
 SAGE
2022 Annabella Chow Design and implementation of a new MC website that is primarily geared towards user support and experimental documentationImplementa Mike Soltis
 STEM
2022 Taylor Billingsley Development of X-ray emission spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of metals in protein solutions used for crystallization Aina Cohen
 SULI
2022 Michael Sommeling Expansion of the Blu-Ice instrument and control software tool set to include Python capabilities. Jinhu Song
 SULI
2021 Andrew Drago Design and integration of a UV-Vis spectrometer system at BL12-1 Aina Cohen
 Direct Hire
2021 Steven Jarred DDevelopment of a UV-tryptophan fluorescence imaging camera and design of a motorized camera alignment system Aina Cohen
 EERE Robotics
2021 Michelle Munoz Website conversion and modernization from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS Mike Soltis
 CCI
2021 Elie Mer Collecting and processing X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) data using a novel fixed-target crystal delivery device Art Lyubimov
 SULI
2021 Alyssa Teteris Test FDA-approved drug molecules for inhibition of folate dependent thymidylate synthase (FDTS) through virtual screening and docking analysis Irimpan Mathews
 STAR
2020 Sabine Hollatz Enhancing diffraction image processing with machine learning James Holton
 Direct Hire
2020 Lisa McPhillips Camera correction for video analysis used in the Blu-Ice GUI Jinhu Song
 Direct Hire
2020 Andrew Drago Designing a switching mechanism between a cold stream (80 K) and a humidity-controlled stream at ambient temperature Robin Frank
 Direct Hire
2020 Shirin Kuppusamy Processing micro-electron diffraction data Art Lyubimov
 SULI
2020 Ali Fox Kitchen recipe for lysozyme crystallization Irimpan Mathews
 SULI-Ohio-5
2020 Abdul-Raheem Adeleke Automated alignment of a robotic microspectrophotometer Aina Cohen
 EERE Robotics
2019 Paula Vilchis Develop methods for shipping protein crystal samples at ambient temperatures. Train other summer interns how to use Solid Edge Aina Cohen
 Direct Hire
2019 George Kerber Crystallization and data collection of Flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase from mycobacterium tuberculosis Irimpan Mathews
 STAR
2019 Dominic Farina Towards time-resolved structural studies on carbapenem-hydrolyzing class D serine β-lactamases Clyde Smith
 SULI
2019 Anastasiya Stayuk Structure and functional studies on enzymes implicated in antibiotic resistance Clyde Smith
 SULI
2019 Harrison Wang Raman spectroscopic characterization in structure-based drug discovery Jeney Wierman
 SULI
2019 Jessica Felix Remote access crystallography data collection at near physiological temperatures and controlled humidity Silvia Russi
 SULI
2019 Sasha Smerekanych Protein visualization via crystallography Irimpan Mathews
 SULI-Ohio-5
2018 Mariam Jalal Crystallize and fine tune conditions to produce high resolution X-ray diffraction data from mutants of green fluorescent proteins. Use the newly developed Sample Extractor to optimize diffraction quality Irimpan Mathews
 Direct Hire
2018 Darya Rivera Determine the reaction kinetics for the enzyme isocyanide hydratase using UV-Vis spectroscopy Aina Cohen
 Puerto Rico Extension
2018 Joanna Siegfried Molecular Crystallography - from crystals to refined structure Aina Cohen
 STAR
2018 Brooke Connel Molecular Crystallography - from crystals to refined structure Silvia Russi
 STAR
2018 Ye'Ab Kebede Help in prototyping with Solid Edge, assembly and testing new protein crystallization containers Aina Cohen
 STEM
2018 Paula Vilchis On-the-fly visualization, identification and subsequent X-ray crystallography data collection of protein crystals using "low background" fixed mounts and UV-Tryptophan florescence microscopy Aina Cohen
 STEM
2018 Martin Ruiz Prototyping, assembly and testing new protein crystallization containers Aina Cohen
 STEM
2018 Bianca Cervantes Learn basic Drupal skills to help build new Macromolecular Crystallography website Mike Soltis
 STEAM
2018 Lisa McPhillips QA and further development of new Macromolecular Crystallography website Mike Soltis
 Direct Hire
2018 Laura Lou Crystallization and structural studies of flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase and an analysis of the conserved water channel connecting the actives sites Irimpan Mathews
 SULI
2018 Gary Chen Reconstructing 3D protein crystal intensities from serial unoriented microcrystal diffraction patterns at SSRL Jeney Weirman
 SULI
2018 Keishla Sanchez-Otriz Structural biology studies of metalloenzymes using X-ray crystallography and complementary in-situ spectroscopic techniques Silvia Russi
 SULI
2017 Delaney Sullivan The expression, purification and activity studies of Flavin-dependent thymidylate synthase from M. tuberculosis Irimpan Mathews
 STEM
2015 Lisa McPhillips Mechanical Design for Automated Crystal Screening Aina Cohen
Elizabeth Baxter		 SSRL intern
2015 Rosario Avelar-Romo Crystal growth, sample prep and equipment design for structural biology research Aina Cohen SSRL intern
2015 Kim Allison Crystal growth, sample prep and equipment design for structural biology research Aina Cohen SSRL intern
2015 Lauren Maltz Structural studies on antibiotic resistance enzymes Clyde Smith SULI
2015 Kassia Swanson Crystallographic studies on human DDAH-1 complexes Clyde Smith SSRL intern
2014 Rosario Avelar-Romo Crystal growth, sample prep and equipment design for structural biology research Aina Cohen SSRL intern
2014 Kim Allison Crystal growth, sample prep and equipment design for structural biology research Aina Cohen SSRL intern
2013 Chris Milianta Structural studies on antibiotic resistance enzymes Clyde Smith High school student
2013 Mila Novikova Crystallization of human DDAH-1 Clyde Smith exchange student
2012 Mathew Au Crystal structure of a site-directed mutant of APH(2")-Ib Clyde Smith SULI
2012 Chris Milianta Structural studies on antibiotic resistance enzymes Clyde Smith High school student
2012 Mila Novikova Crystallization of human DDAH-1 Clyde Smith exchange student
2011 Kwame Wiafe Crystal structures of GES beta-lactamase variants Clyde Smith FaST student
2011 Jared Munoz Crystal structures of GES beta-lactamase variants Clyde Smith FaST student
2010 Thomas Liu Bioinformatic analysis of class A and class D beta-lactamases Clyde Smith SSRL summer student
2009 Laura Cooper Energy Dependance of Specific Radiation Damage in Protein Crystallography

poster

 Ana Gonzalez Science teacher trainee
2008 Christina Homer Automated detector position calibration at PX beamlines Ana Gonzalez UCSD Intern
2008 Laura Aguila Analysis of plastics for use as a sample container for X-ray diffraction experiments

report

 Aina Cohen Recent graduate of Monta Vista High School
2008 Sameep Tandon Analysis of plastics for use as a sample container for X-ray diffraction experiments

report

 Aina Cohen Recent graduate of Monta Vista High School
2007 Benjamin Cherian Cryojet controller DHS
JAVA BluIce client. 		Jinhu Song Caltech Intern
2007 Brendon Soltis Integration of beamsize information to JPEG images.. Jinhu Song H. S. Intern
2007 Christina Homer

Evaluation of XREC and C3D for Automated Centering.

report

 Ana Gonzalez
Graeme Card		 UC San Diego Intern
2007 Michael Berger Automation of a new protein crystallization method. Irimpan Mathews H. S. Intern
2007 Laura Byrnes

Crystallographic studies of two bacterial antibiotic resistance enzymes: Aminoglycoside Phopshotransferase (2'')-Ic and GES-1 beta-lactamase.

report

Clyde Smith SULI
2007 Rosanne Joseph Temperature Measurements on Cryogenic Cooling Systems at SSRL Macromolecular Crystallography Beamlines Herbert Axelrod UC Berkeley Intern
2006 Johannes Decker Protein crystallization using a new crystallization method. Irimpan Mathews Stanford University Intern
2006 Deepa Mathew Manuscript for "Diffraction Based Automated Crystal Centering".
Robot development studies: sample pin orientation and ice formation on hardware. 		Mike Soltis Penn State U Intern
2006 Sandhya Jacob Prolonged Exposure of Lysozyme Crystal to X-rays Results in Measurable Site Specific Radiation Damage.

report

Graeme Card
Ana Gonzalez		 UC Berkeley Intern
2006 Jonathan O'Keefe Autoindex status monitoring to notify BluIce.
Consolidate code for BluIce: move repeated code from several Widgets into base class. 		Jinhu Song UC Santa Barbara Intern
2006 Brendon Soltis Video taping and editing movies of robot operation and calibration.
PowerPoint presentation design and photo editing.
Robot development studies: sample pin orientation and ice formation on hardware. 		Jinhu Song
Mike Soltis		 H. S. Intern
2006 George Boxer Energy Minimization using Redundant Dihedral Degrees of Freedom. Henry van den Bedem Princeton University Intern
2006 Rosanne Joseph Crystallization and structure studies of TM1389, a putative methyltransferase, from Thermotoga maritima.
Structure of apo and heme bound TyrA- a member of a new class of plant peroxidase. 		Herbert Axelrod
Chloe Zubieta		 H. S. Intern
2005 Olga Krasnykh Structure solution and refinement of two mutants of a heat shock protein from P. tremula Ana Gonzalez
Irimpan Mathews		 H.S. Intern
2005 Deepa Mathew Automated Protein Crystal Centering Mike Soltis Univ. of Chicago
2005 Laura Corbet Automated Protein Crystal Centering Mike Soltis H.S. Intern
2005 Rosanne Joseph

The X-Ray Crystallographic Refinement of TM1389-A SAM-dependent Methyltransferase from Thermotoga maritima.

report

Herbert Axelrod H.S. Intern
2005 John O'Keefe DHS for new DAQboard (analog I/O and digital I/O) for remote sample light intensity control
Jinhu Song UC Santa Barbara Intern
2005 George Boxer Building a consensus protein model by dynamic programming
Henry van den Bedem H.S. Intern
2004 Olga Krasnykh Stability of Thymidylate Synthase Complementing Protein mutants from Thermatoga maritima Irimpan Mathews
Mike Soltis		 Stanford University Intern
2004 Sandhya Jacob Development of an automated protein crystal alignment system using X-rays. Mike Soltis H.S. Intern
2004 Deepa Mathew Development of an automated protein crystal alignment system using X-rays. Irimpan Mathews
Mike Soltis		 H.S. Intern
2004 Jessica Johnsen Optimization of crystal growth by using seeding techniques.
Tests of the Stanford Automated sample Mounting system.		 Tzanko Doukov H.S. Intern
2004 Chasen Soltis Adminitrative assistant. Amanda Prado H.S. Intern
2004 Nick Nguyen Structure solution of Populus tremula SP1 mutants
Upgrade of the SMB web site		 Ana Gonzalez H.S. Intern
2004 Zepu Zhang Development of software for diffraction image analysis Ashley Deacon Stanford University Intern
2004 Fred Lo Structure determination of chicken muscle lactate dehydrogenase. Clyde Smith Stanford University Intern
2004 Bryan O. Mitchell Structural Analysis of Thymidylate Synthase Complementing Protein mutants from Thermatoga maritima Irimpan Mathews Paine College
2003 Nick Nguyen Structure solution of Populus tremula SP1 mutants
Upgrade of the SMB web site		 Ana Gonzalez H.S. Intern
2003 Zepu Zhang Development of software for diffraction image analysis Ashley Deacon Stanford University Intern
2003 Zepu Zhang Development of software for diffraction image analysis Ashley Deacon Stanford University Intern
2003 Deepa Mathew Structural Analysis of Thymidylate Synthase Complimenting Protein from Thermatoga maritima in the Presence of Deoxythymidine 5'-Monophosphate
report		 Irimpan Mathews H.S. Intern
2002 Zepu Zhang Development of software for diffraction image analysis Ashley Deacon Stanford University Intern
2002 Zachary Anderson Development of an algorithm for the automatic alignment of x-ray beams
report		 Ana Gonzalez,
Henry van den Bedem		 SULI
2002 Nancy Fathali Model Building of the TM protein Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 SULI
2001 Zepu Zhang Development of software for diffraction image analysis Ashley Deacon Stanford University Intern
2001 Nancy Fathali Sequencing, model building and refinement of an enzyme critical for valine catabolism - 3-hydroxyisobutyrate dehydrogenase (HIBADH) Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 SULI
2001 Tamar Jones Advanced mechanical and electrical training for macromolecular crystallography hardware Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 H.S. Intern
2001 Rajinesh Narayan Sequencing, model building and refinement of an enzyme critical for valine catabolism - 3-hydroxyisobutyrate dehydrogenase (HIBADH) Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 SULI
2001 Richard Urata Software development for the crystallographic data collection package "Blu-Ice". Tim McPhillips H.S. Intern
2000 Marilena LoVerde Crystallization of GABAA Receptor
report		 Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 SULI
2000 Amy Wu Crystallization of GABAA Receptor
report		 Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 SULI
1999 Tamar Jones Mechanical and electrical training for macromolecular crystallography hardware Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 H.S. Intern
1999 Andrea Kurtz Development of crystallization conditions for several proteins including horse skeletal muscle myoglobin.
report		 Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis,
Nick Sauter		 SULI
1999 Silpa Nalam Development of crystallization conditions for several proteins including horse skeletal muscle myoglobin.
report		 Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis,
Nick Sauter		 SULI
1999 Amanda Prado Development of a PowerPoint presentation to describe crystal cryo-cooling
presentation		 Aina Cohen,
Paul Ellis		 H.S. Intern