Each year, ADARC welcomes a number of interns who spend the summer months working in our laboratories and learning from our scientists. These young scientists are selected by ADARC's faculty due to their talent, scientific interests, and early career choices. From recent college graduates, to college students with their eyes on medical school, to extraordinary high school students, they all share a love for science that blossomed early, and an enthusiasm to contribute to end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Max Golden

Max Golden, an intern in the Core Facilities laboratory under Vincent Sahi, has always been curious about how things work. While still a high school student, he is interested in the structure of science, the process of observation, obscure facts and theories, and the challenge of discovery. He has been accepted to the Authentic Science Research Program at White Plains High School, a college-level course which enables students to participate in the community of scientific research and scholarship, and looks forward to working on his own research project next year. At ADARC he has helped set up, operate, and maintain instruments and equipment in the lab, including the new Biacore T200 system which studies bio-molecular interactions. He also helped design and conduct experiments involving flow cytometry, using laser light to measure the presence of antigens on the surface of cells. 

Sheena Tsai

Sheena Tsai, an intern in Dr. David Ho's laboratory, didn't know it at the time, but her career choice started to take shape while she was still a toddler. At age one, she was hospitalized with salmonella. According to her mother, doctors did not think she would survive. Years later, hearing the story of how doctors and medicine had saved her life, she became intrigued by science and medicine. At Townsend Harris High School, she was inspired by a talented Biology teacher who made science interesting and fun. The choice was clear, she would become a doctor. She was an intern in emergency medicine at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center for two summers. When she started college at Case-Western University, she committed to a 8-year program that transitions from undergraduate (Biology major with Dance and Music minors) into medical school. She is using her experience at ADARC to learn more about laboratory techniques, and different research protocols. She is working with post-doctoral fellow Craig Pace constructing different antibodies and seeing how they respond with HIV-infected cells.