NextGen internship program offers a whirlwind tour of genetics
July 15, 2026 Quinn Eastman
The NextGen High School Internship Program gives students an inside look at biomedical science with the Department of Human Genetics. Photo by Emily Allen.
During a five-week stretch this summer, 10 Atlanta-area high school students got a chance to see what biomedical scientists do every day as part of Emory’s NextGen High School Internship Program.
The tour of Emory laboratories taught students to analyze genetic mutations in leukemia cells and recognize the distinctive features of male and female fruit flies. They also harvested and visualized induced pluripotent stem cells.
During a June visit to Tamara Caspary’s lab in the Department of Human Genetics, students dissected mice under the supervision of Caspary lab members.
“You get bonus points if you can find the ovaries,” graduate student Eilleen Falkenberry told Neeral Gandhi, a rising senior at North Gwinnett High School (who did manage to find them).
Along the way, the experience dispelled misconceptions some of the high school students had about science and research.
One intern was surprised to find out that scientists spent so much time planning their next steps rather than tinkering in the laboratory. Another said her mental picture of scientists had not previously extended beyond the stereotypical “mad scientist.”
“I didn’t realize that it takes so many people to put together a published paper,” said Paul Phan, from Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia.
The NextGen high school internship program provides students with hands-on laboratory experiences at Emory, along with classroom instruction in biology and genetics; field trips; and career advice. Organized by the Department of Human Genetics, the NextGen program began in 2022 and restarted this year after a pause in 2025.
The program seeks to immerse students from all backgrounds in the world of biomedical research as a way to develop their interest in future careers.
Gandhi, for example, was familiar with the option to attend medical school because her older sister was a medical student. NextGen sparked her interest in genetic counseling as a potential career.
Molecular boys at the pawn shop
On July 7, interns gave presentations about what they had learned in a wrap-up symposium. Several students made videos that gently poked fun, while also showing their understanding of what they had been exposed to.
Phan and another intern, Biruk Ayalew, wrote their own lyrics to Estelle’s song “American Boy,” creating “Molecular Boy.”
“Dressed in all your fancy coats, gloves lookin’ fresh to death, I’m lovin’ those latex gloves,” they sang.
In another video, a student played a pawn shop customer, trying to convince NextGen program director Emily Allen — who was impersonating a shop owner from the History Channel show “Pawn Stars” — to buy some valuable plasmid, a form of circular DNA.
“This is my favorite day of the whole year,” Allen said at the symposium. “I tell them that as long as it has a little bit to do with science, they can do it.”
When she’s not directing the NextGen program, Allen is an associate professor of human genetics who studies genetic conditions related to fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome. She sorted through more than 600 applicants to select this year’s NextGen cohort.
Students came from high schools around Georgia, with some coming from as far away as Milledgeville. Half of the students commuted from home, while those who live further away were housed near the Emory campus at Villa International on Clifton Road.
This year’s program (a paid internship of $3,120) was supported by the Beckman Foundation and Otogenetics.
