Curriculum • Internship Examples

Summer internship experiences involve students in some aspect of public health genetics practice. Internships were identified through a variety of routes, including: faculty contacts, student initiation, web searches, and word-of-mouth. The following are examples of some of the internship experiences undertaken by University of Michigan Public Health Genetics students in various areas of public health.

Education
Developed a book and accompanying interactive CD-Rom to educate patients about cancer and genetic issues, contributed to a workshop on "breast Cancer genetics and Risk Evaluation" for health care providers, evaluated the genetic content in national meetings attended by physicians, evaluated the use and impact of computer assisted instruction module about DNA.

Environmental Health
Studied interactions between smoking and gulthathione S-transferase genotypes on prostate cancer, developed and submitted a HuGE review on genetic susceptibility to lead toxicity, investigated environmental exposures (e.g. asbestos, fiberglass and wood dust) on head and neck cancer to identify candidate exposures for gene-environment interaction studies.

Policy
Analyzed insurance-related genetics issues for Michigan Blue Cross/Blue Shield, researched the public's values and perceptions of genetic testing and reproductive technology, designed and developed a study to assess public perceptions and values regarding the collection and use of biological materials for genetic research, reviewed consent forms from research studies to assess whether and how the forms described additional research that would use stored tissue samples, researched and evaluated birth defects surveillance systems, conducted a survey of adolescents with genetic conditions to assess services provided by state agencies.

Laboratory and Clinical-based Research
Clinical research project investigating a specific familial cancer syndrome, identified a candidate gene for X-linked retinoschisis, evaluated candidate genes for brain cancer, developed a study to assess prostate cancer screening practices in men with a potentially inherited susceptibility for prostate cancer, screened candidate glaucoma genes for mutations, case control studies of Alzheimer'' disease, influenza genetics, mapped two new human glaucoma genes.

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In you have any questions, please contact: geneticsed@umich.edu