BISC Global Consulting Firm Bioinformatics Internship

Description of Internship Project: The intern will be heavily involved in shadowing our Senior Bioinformatics Consultants as much as possible. For this reason, each internship project will depend on the Senior Consultant and the client they are working with. The project will likely involve one of the following projects related to:
• Microbiome
• Data Mining
• Data Integration
• Epigenetics
• Transcriptomics
• Immuno-oncology
o i.e. – immune receptor repertoire sequence processing and analysis
• If accepted and approved by BISC clients, training provided to the intern will include a snapshot of BISC clients in the biotech and biopharma industry in greater Boston. This will entail an understanding of client needs related to bioinformatics (i.e. – data organization, data mining, data curation, data processing, data analysis, data visualization, and functional interpretation of the data) and offer a taste of the versatile work as a consultant.
Responsibilities of the intern: (including attendance to staff meetings, policies and other expectations)
• Analysis and/or analysis pipeline development for diverse types of projects
• Be able to research and learn the relevant background information for the project at hand
• Organizational skills (in collaboration with the Senior Bioinformatics Consultant):
o Keeping track of the project, its timeline and requirements
o Adjustment of the course and analyses according to the project outcomes and shifts in project goals
o Communication towards the client
• Communication:
o Attend group meetings virtually and/or in person
o Preparation for client meetings/calls and the communication towards the client
Description of Deliverable at Completion of Internship: (lectures, presentations, analysis report, excel model, etc.)
• final report (PowerPoint or Word Document or combination of both) on what was learned from the internship experience.
o Example questions to answer in this report include:
▪ What was the overarching theme of the client’s need and how did this differ from their initial expectation? What was the level of organization of the client’s data and their data infrastructure? And how did this differ from the intern’s initial expectation?
Evaluation of the deliverable (evaluation criteria, feed-back/performance review process)
• Evaluation will be conducted and judged by Senior Consultant assigned to intern with final review by Dan Ryder.
Mentor / Reporting for the intern:
• To be determined at time of internship start.
Professional Development Objectives/ Benefits to the intern:
• Learn and understand the methods utilized when working with biotech and biopharma clients involved in the discovery, pre-clinical and clinical R&D space
• Learn and understand the methods and programs for building, streamlining data pipelines in the context of biotech and biopharma
• Develop and improve interpersonal communication skills – especially with scientists in the biotech and biopharma space (including but not limited to Directors, VPs and sometimes CEOs)
• How to prioritize and handle a variety of projects simultaneously
• Learn and understand the logistics and components of planning to address an client project.
• Learn how to use cloud computing internally and externally
• Understand the intricacies of CROs, consulting firms and how they interact with pharma clients in private industry.
Requested Qualifications of Intern:
• good communication skills, written and verbal
• a solid and thorough understanding of genetics, epigenetics, transcriptomics
• and proteomics
• knowledgeable in data analysis strategies and techniques (sequencing-based and/or
• micro-arrays) and workflows
• knowledge of data structures and databases, and are used to working with publicly
• available datasets and tools
• basic to mid-level knowledge of programming languages such as Java, C++, Perl, Python, R
• previous experience with bioinformatics projects (pathway analysis, differential analysis, data
• and text mining, database querying, machine learning etc.) is a plus
• basic knowledge of statistical and experimental design, more advanced knowledge is a plus
• high ethical standards
Internship Start and Duration:
Desired Start date: Between January 1st to January 10th, 2019
Duration: 3 months
Desired Time Commitment:
Part-time (approx. hr/week): 10 hours per week, more if allowed by mentor

Compensation: Yes ($12/hr)
Note: due to the confidential nature of our consulting work at BISC, interns will need to sign a Confidential Disclosure Agreement
Can work be performed remotely?
• Yes at least part time can be remote work. However, we prefer at least a few face to face meetings initially and then throughout the internship.