Undergraduate Student Research Position – Computational Biology

The Organization

As an independent research organization, the Morgridge Institute for Research explores uncharted scientific territory to discover tomorrow’s cures. In affiliation with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we support researchers who take a fearless approach to advancing human health in emerging fields such as virology, advanced multi-scale fluorescence and electron microscopy, metabolism and regenerative biology. Through public programming, we work to inspire scientific curiosity in everyday life.

The Opportunity:

The Morgridge Institute for Research offers a foundational entry point for early-career computational biology-focused UW-Madison undergraduate students to join Dr. Jonathan Stefely’s lab. This position is designed for highly motivated students looking to move beyond the classroom and develop the practical, hands-on computational biology skills. This posting is for a “dry lab” computational biology student position. Please note that there is a separate “wet lab” biology student posting.

Core Computational Training & Responsibilities

As a junior member of the Stefely research team, you will receive direct training with basic science approaches. The goal is to gradually develop independent expertise and productivity in the following scientific areas:

• Bioinformatics pipelines: execution of existing computational pipelines for analyzing genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, or metabolomic data.
• Computer vision: use existing and new computer vision methods to analyze microscopy image datasets.
• Scripting & automation: develop and refine basic scripts (e.g., Python or R) to automate data processing and analysis.
• Wet lab science collaboration: Work together with senior “wet lab” biology and biochemistry researchers on data analysis of complex biological and biochemical experiments.
• Computational collaboration: Work together with senior computational experts within the Morgridge Institute and/or UW-Madison (a co-mentor for in-depth advising on technical details of computational methods will be identified).
• Experimental design & troubleshooting: Develop the ability to plan experiments, identify proper controls, interpret unexpected outcomes, and troubleshoot.
• Documentation: Maintain detailed digital records of computational procedures and code changes to ensure research reproducibility.
• Data curation & management: Organize and maintain large-scale datasets and ensure data integrity within lab databases.
• Laboratory standards: Master “gold standards” of a professional research team, including lab safety, data security, scientific rigor, and computational resource management.

Professional Growth & Pathways

• Mentorship: Work within a supportive and collaborative scientific team at the Morgridge Institute, a private nonprofit dedicated to scientific research toward human health in partnership with UW-Madison.
• Computational co-mentorship: We believe that the best science is done through inter-disciplinary collaboration. We will work with you to identify a co-mentor for in-depth advising on technical details related to computation and/or statistics.
• Long-term potential: The ideal applicant would be a current freshman undergraduate (rising sophomore) to enable the possibility of a ~3-year research experience with a gradually increasing degree of scientific depth and independence.
• Independent research: Students who demonstrate a strong grasp of computational approaches, scientific rigor, a sustained commitment to being a contributing member of the laboratory, and high initiative will have the opportunity to transition to increasingly independent research for academic credit and/or summer scientific internship within the Stefely Lab at the Morgridge Institute.

Requirements

Schedule & Qualifications

• Requirements: No prior research experience is required, but you must be detail-oriented, a strong communicator, and have demonstrated quantitative skills (e.g., good performance in mathematics).
• Technical interests: A strong interest in learning programming languages (e.g., Python or R) and applying them to computational biology.
• Eligibility: Freshman UW-Madison student working toward a computation-focused degree (e.g., current enrollment in a bachelor’s degree program with a focus on Computer Science, Bioinformatics, or Statistics).
• Commitment: We are seeking students who plan to dedicate an average of 12-15 hours in the lab per week for =2 years during the academic school years. The ideal applicant would also be excited about increasing the depth of a longitudinal research experience through summer internship(s) within the lab.
• Flexibility: During the school year, 3–4 shifts spread throughout the week during normal business hours (~8 AM – 6 PM).
• Structure of the position: We can support for-credit research and/or work-study for students.
• Academic performance: We believe that excellence in primary academic coursework provides an essential foundation for computational research. As a member of the Stefely Lab, undergraduate students are expected to maintain a GPA of =3.5.