Research Summer Intern

Position: Full-Time Research Summer Intern - 2026
As the leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization, Breakthrough T1D helps make everyday life with T1D better while driving toward cures. We invest in the most promising research to turn ideas into life-changing therapies and devices. We work with government, regulatory officials, and insurance companies to address issues that impact the T1D community -- breaking through barriers that limit access to care worldwide.

We provide resources and guidance that makes it easier to live and thrive with T1D. This is more than a moment -- we're empowering a movement for the T1D community. Share your support and help educate and empower individuals facing type 1 diabetes.

Our mission is to improve lives today and tomorrow by accelerating life changing breakthroughs to treat, prevent and ultimately, cure T1D and its complications. Always, we are guided by a single purpose:
As we drive towards curing type 1 diabetes, we help make everyday life better for the people who face it.

Project Summary (Projects should be a program designed to develop, train, and provide practical hands-on experience in the student's field of study)

Assessment of methods and procedures to measure Insulin-producing cell function.

A major pillar of Breakthrough T1D Cell Therapy program is focused on the source of insulin producing cells used in islet replacement. Historically this has focused on islets isolated from donor pancreata, with manufactured cell sources increasing in popularity in the past decade. With the accessibility of protocols to generate insulin producing islet-like cells from precursors increasing, more researchers than ever are generating these cells for research.

However, as their use has increased so have the ways in which researchers assess their function. Glucose stimulated insulin secretion assays are the gold standard for measuring islet cell function, however the field lacks a unified framework to perform these assays (static versus dynamic assays, varying low and high glucose concentrations, variable collection time points, and reporting etc.) Further, in vivo assays (i.e., transplantation) similarly lack consistent parameters including the number of cells transplanted, endpoints, and models.

In order to enable comparisons between insulin producing cells across laboratories and research programs, the field would benefit from a set of recommended guidelines for performing these assays. Through informational meetings with researchers working on islet cell replacement and published literature review, this project aims to generate a landscape of the methods and procedures used across the Breakthrough T1D research portfolio to assess islet cell function.

By understanding which parameters are most commonly used, a harmonized recommendation for the field can be made with the aim of increasing the comparability of islet cell sources used in T1D research.

Expected Learnings

The student will gain experience interfacing with leading researchers in the islet cell replacement field, surveying literature databases, and synthesizing, analyzing, and presenting data. This project will expose the student to a wide range of scientific projects across the Breakthrough T1D research portfolio with an emphasis on cell therapy and islet transplantation.

Required Skills/Experience

Familiarity or interest in biomedical research (especially T1D)

Communication skills required to conduct interviews with researchers

Experience working with NLM NCBI Pub Med

Hourly Pay: $18/hour

Essential Functions:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools or controls. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit, reach with hands and arms, climb or balance, and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds, and infrequently up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, and the ability to adjust focus.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Benefits:

Breakthrough T1D offers competitive benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan, voluntary benefits, flexible spending and commuter benefit accounts, an employee assistance program (EAP), life and disability insurance, performance-based bonuses, and generous paid time off. Benefits may vary by job level and full time or part time status.

Additional information:

Requests for medical, religious, and other exemptions will be considered on an individual basis. Breakthrough T1D will comply…