PML Summer Internship Program 

We are on a hunt for the next squad of interns to join our teams! Are you TALENTED and ENERGETIC? Do you have a strong desire to LEARN, SUCCEED, and be INSPIRED?

Ask any scientist or researcher when they first became interested in their profession, and many will say it was while they were in high school!

Precision Medicine Lab aims to cultivate the next generation of scientists by offering an intensive six-week summer internship program for exceptional high school students.

What is PML?

The Precision Medicine Lab (PML) is an inter-disciplinary and translational research lab focusing on real-life questions in cancer and infectious diseases and using an array of computational and experimental approaches and tools to solve them. In addition to leveraging the power of big data in cancer and biology the broader Khan Lab covers special interesting topics in our research group including the bioeconomy, astrobiology, bio-art and DIY hardware. The Lab, is an affiliate Lab of the prestigious National Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing, funded by the Federal Government of Pakistan and is led by Dr Faisal Khan.

The lab is jointly run and sponsored by CECOS University and Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) in Hayatabad, Peshawar, with its primary premises at the Main Laboratory Building in RMI, Peshawar.

What is the PML Summer Internship Program ?

Alongside research, PML is very committed towards the development of human resources through capacity building activities and broader community-building efforts in the biomedical sciences. We organize numerous events including the Big Data in Biomedicine seminar series, PMLHacks which is a hackathon, Journal Clubs similar to book clubs but for reading scientific papers together and PML Sprints which are quick workshops around technical skills required in biomedical research.

The PML summer internship program is six weeks of full-time engagement in the Lab offering exposure to everything from developing a research questions, literature review, data mining, undertaking experiments (in the Lab or using data), poster preparation and presentation, report writing and presenting their work in a real scientific conference.

This is a competitive program with admission given to the brightest students with the highest potential in every given batch. This opportunity is only for students of grades 9-12. We invite interested students to join any of the following teams: cells and models, networks, assays and screens, wearables, digital pathology, bioart, multiomes, COVID19 and OralCancer. Participation in the internship program is open to students from all over the country. We encourage students from outside of Peshawar and KP to apply for this program. In fact, the Lab has hosted students from all over the country in the past from Karachi and Kalat to Lahore and Tharparkar.

You can increase your odds by putting an effort into your application (read up on the previous cohort here), and demonstrating your potential with examples of activities you have undertaken or been involved in outside your school curriculum.

What’s in it for you?

  • Get to work with some of the smartest scientists in various disciplines form around the country coming together in one lab.
  • Based on your project get a chance to work on global scientific problems in one of the finest biology labs in the country, with world-class equipment.
  • Work under a dedicated mentor alongside senior members of the team.
  • Get a chance to be a co-author on a research paper, report and/or a scientific poster and if you are lucky take it to a conference.
  • Get to speed with how scientific research is done and how laboratories work, to help you plan your career.
  • Get a certificate of completion at the end of your 6 weeks of mandatory attendance.
  • If you perform like a star, you can earn a recommendation letter from the PI for your university applications!

To be considered for an internship, you must meet the following requirements:
  • Have an excellent academic performance as demonstrated by recent school records.
  • Be at least 15 years old and enrolled in an educational institute in grades 9-12.
  • Have a demonstrated interest in the work of Precision Medicine Lab.
  • Willingness to commit to intern on a full-time basis spending 5 days a week for the entire 6 weeks of the program, in the Lab, in Peshawar.

Additional consideration will be given to any professional experience relevant to the team you’re applying for.

Last year’s program alumnus, Haya, an A-Levels student from Bloomfield Hall School, Peshawar who has now secured an admission at New York University, USA sums up the experience students get from the program,

“It was an eye-opener in ways I could not have imagined, ranging from the scientific content and designing my poster to recognizing my strengths and weaknesses.”

When we asked the program director, Shahram Khan, on what the students take away, he said:

“Yes, they gain a lot of new insights about precision medicine, about big data in cancer, a lot of biology in general, but what they really rave about is the people they get to meet. All the different scientists, the researchers, all of them with different backgrounds, and all of them willing to share their experiences with the students. It’s almost like a networking opportunity for their future careers.”

Another alumnus, Furqan, an FSc student from Cadet College Kohat shares his experience:

“I had never presented research work to such a learned group of people before, hailing from multidisciplinary backgrounds. It made me aware of the different fields that science has to offer”

PML Summer Interns – Alumnus

Muhammad Dawood

A2, Aitchison College (now Imperial College London)

Haya Basit

A1, Bloomfield Hall School, Peshawar (now New York University< Abu Dhabi Campus)

Furqan Sethi

1st Year FSc, Cadet College, Kohat (now Khyber Medical College)

Muhammad Ibrar

O-level Final, Bloomfield Hall School, Peshawar

Omar Amin

A2, Bloomfield Hall School, Peshawar

Zainab Ali

A2, Beaconhouse School FC Campus, Peshawar

Muhammad Sulaimaan

A2 Aitchison College, Lahore

Radhiya Nouman

A2 Beaconhouse School FC Campus, Peshawar

How to Apply

The internship starts on 5th July 2021 till 13th August 2021.

This is a residential internship based at Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) in Hayatabad, Peshawar. Upon acceptance into the program at least one parent will be required to visit the Lab. Student applications to the 2022 PML Summer internship program this summer will be accepted until June 18, 2022, and can be found here: bit.ly/PMLinterns

For any inquiries, please contact Program Director: Shahram Khan at shahram@precisionmedicine.pk

You can also read up our blog on last year’s high school interns here