Robert Meyers, a NIU Biology and Russian literature dual major, has been accepted into the summer internship program, Biotechnology & Russian Summer Program, at Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia for the summer of 2012. This internship was possible because NIU is a US member institution of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).   Rob has been assigned to work in a research lab that will be isolating genes from coral to discover new fluorescent markers.  This is a Russian language immersion program so all instruction and seminars will be held in Russian. 

Rob will be using the molecular biology skills learned from Dr. Scott Grayburn to investigate apoptosis gene expression in irradiated and drug treated human brain tumor cells for his independent research project in Dr. Linda Yasui’s lab.

Dr. Kenneth Gasser, undergraduate advisor for the department, stated, "This is a very prestigious internship this summer. It is administered by George Washington University and entails working at Moscow University in Russia for around 2 months this summer in the area of molecular biology. All expenses paid including all transportation etc. All candidates must have working Russian language skills.  I remembered that Robert spoke a bit of Russian based on some conversation we had in the past (learned in the military) and he has acquired some fairly extensive laboratory skills in Linda's (Dr. Yasui's) lab."

Best of luck to Rob as he takes advantage of this wonderful opportunity for research and language imersion!