FAQs
Does HudsonAlpha offer summer internships and college courses?
Educational Outreach at HudsonAlpha offers many opportunities for high school and college students seeking on-the-job experience in the field of biotechnology.
BioTrain – This competitive internship is available to college students with opportunities ranging from marketing and business strategy to in-depth laboratory experience. Applications open in January each year. For any questions about BioTrain, please visit our website or contact biotrain@hudsonalpha.org.
Summer Short Course – This three-week course is available to high school students. The Short Course will provide interaction with research labs and biotechnology companies working in the field. For more information, visit our website.
Are there classroom resources for teachers?
HudsonAlpha seeks to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals and that starts in the classroom. As an educator in Alabama, there are a variety of tools available to you to help foster a biotech-literate society.
The Annual Guidebook: Biotechnology Discoveries and Applications – Genetics, genomics and biotechnology are fast-paced and ever-changing fields with new discoveries occurring every day. To help educators stay up to date on these discoveries and learn how to bring them into the classroom, the HudsonAlpha Education Outreach team publishes an annual Biotechnology Guidebook. This Guidebook includes articles on foundational concepts as well as descriptions of new research discoveries. This year’s guidebook and past editions are available for download.
Educational Kits – In 2007, HudsonAlpha began a partnership with the Alabama Department of Education to develop modules and activities for middle and high school students connected to state curriculum requirements in genetics. Today, these kits reach more than 50,000 Alabama students annually through the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative. Activities explore chromosome behavior in cells, diagnose genetic disorders and use bioinformatics databases to reinforce DNA structure and function. Recently, HudsonAlpha’s kits have been licensed to Carolina Biological Supply Company to promote and distribute to classrooms around the world. Details about kit contents, costs and ordering instructions can be accessed on our website.
Field Trips – Our state-of-the-art facilities allow students to explore genetics concepts and experience activities associated with several biotechnology careers. These hands-on, laboratory-based field trips are tied to course of study objectives, put high-tech biotechnology tools in the hands of your students and engage them in scientific thinking. For more information regarding our field trips, visit our website.
Digital Education– HudsonAlpha offers four digital education resources to students, teachers and the public: the Progress of Science timeline, GenomeCache®, HudsonAlpha iCell®, and Touching Triton® – our newest online activity. Educator training workshops for Touching Triton will be held across Alabama during 2014 and 2015. To learn more about these sessions, visit our website.
Are there education courses available to the public?
Public education is an essential component of HudsonAlpha’s mission to accelerate discoveries from the laboratories into real-world benefits. HudsonAlpha offers public education classes that are transforming the community into one of the most genetically literate in America.
Biotech 101 – HudsonAlpha’s popular seminar series Biotech 101 is an introduction to the field of biotechnology and the influence of genetics on human health and disease. Offered each fall over four weekly sessions, participants are taught DNA basics and the relevance of genetics and genomics in medicine, agriculture and the environment. Each session includes a primer on basic genetic concepts followed by examples of these concepts in a research and/or commercial setting and presented by HudsonAlpha scientists and educators.
For registration information, visit our website or sign up for our newsletter to receive updates.
Biotech 201 – Biotech 201 is a follow-on course for those who have completed Biotech 101. The course is offered each February as four, weekly sessions led by Neil Lamb, PhD, HudsonAlpha’s Vice President for Educational Outreach. Each year’s Biotech 201 explores a different topic in genetics and genomics research. Past special topics have included the human microbiome, cancer, neurodegenerative, psychiatric and adult-onset disorders, and technologies used for research, diagnosis and treatments.
For registration information, visit our website or sign up for our newsletter to receive updates.
Genomics and Your Practice – This continuing education series is for local physicians and other healthcare providers to learn more about genomics and its increasing relevance to clinical practice. Genomics and Your Practice is accredited by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, therefore healthcare providers who take the course are able to receive continuing education credits. In addition to repeat offerings of the introductory course, future courses, offered quarterly, will delve deeper into genomics in specialty areas. For more information, visit our website.
Are there opportunities for middle school students and teachers?
Middle School Summer Camps – Educational Outreach provides several weeks of biotechnology camps for middle school students. These half-day camps are offered to rising 6th through 9th grade students. Three different camp options are offered — all housed within the educational spaces at HudsonAlpha. Information about each camp, including dates, descriptions and tuition, can be found on our website.