Internships at Promega: What Did You Learn?

Posted on by Promega

Each summer, nearly every department at Promega welcomes interns onto their teams. In only three months, these interns make critical contributions to the business and leave with valuable experiences to complement their education.

Four interns shared thoughts on their time at Promega, and how their accomplishments connect to their educational journeys.

Brady Anderson, Scientific Applications Intern, shares his work applying PCR tools to agricultural testing.

Eva Eckel, Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) Intern, connects three different rotations to her coursework in environmental science.

Ethan Hazra, Process Engineer Co-Op, recalls the rewarding challenge of repairing equipment in an environmental control room.

Ashley Leighton, Corporate Hospitality Intern, describes how she helped her team improve their metrics analysis.

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Brady Anderson, Scientific Applications Intern

As the Scientific Applications intern, I developed a protocol for detecting live bacteria on inoculated seeds using Promega’s Viability PCR Reagent System. The project brought my research experience full circle, as I began my undergraduate research career studying plant organisms. Our goal was to use the vPCR kit to provide agricultural companies with evidence confirming that their inoculations were coating seeds with live bacteria. We also tested vPCR’s compatibility with Oxford Nanopore Sequencing, finding that samples treated with the vPCR Reagent System were detectable in a flow cell. These results may have implications for laboratories using Promega’s vPCR kit that wish to sequence their samples.

The project came with its ups and downs, but I enjoyed every part of it. Our greatest challenge was producing high enough DNA yields in our samples. Because we were developing the protocol from scratch, we naturally faced considerable trial and error while optimizing it. Another challenge was that I had been using a dead sample during the first few experiments. Although initially disappointing, I was able to reframe our results and show that the reagent could potentially provide evidence for the opposite of what it was designed to detect. These challenges reinforced the idea that in science, there are no bad results, only opportunities to learn something unexpected.

My long-term goal is to attend medical school and become a physician. As medicine continues to evolve, so too does the relationship between clinical practice and scientific discovery. After spending one semester in a research lab in the UW-Madison Department of Botany and four semesters in the Department of Medicine, Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, I wanted to expand my research into a field previously unknown to me. The Scientific Applications position stood because of its quick turnaround on projects and the confidence the team placed in their interns to develop independence throughout the summer.

Heading into medical school, I am now a much more autonomous and free-thinking researcher. I am no longer anxious about the idea of launching independent research projects or creating experimental designs. My summer at Promega helped me grow from someone with an innate curiosity about the intricacies of biology and biochemistry into someone confident enough to use that curiosity to design experiments, navigate unexpected results, and produce meaningful findings.

Eva Eckel, Environmental Health & Safety Intern

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as an Environmental Health & Safety Intern at Promega, rotating through three sectors: Occupational Safety, Product Stewardship, and Environmental Compliance and Chemistry.

In Occupational Safety, I created a Workplace Safety Sign Generator that reduced sign creation time, helped build the campus-wide AED tracker, and supported safety audits & emergency drills across the Promega facilities.

My Product Stewardship rotation focused on SDS (Safety Data Sheet) documentation and compliance. During this rotation I helped update SDS language for international regulations, responded to specialized SDS requests for individual products, and created a consolidation analysis that reduced Promega’s component SDS count from approximately 20k to 10k, which could reduce the company’s SDS documentation burden and maintenance costs.

Regarding my Environmental Compliance & Chemistry rotation, I supported ISO 14001/EMS initiatives, participated in hazardous waste accumulation inspections and gas sensor calibration, created a spill team analysis, and contributed to process hazard analyses.

These projects aligned directly with my environmental science coursework. I applied project management skills from my classes to real workplace scenarios and used my environmental policy knowledge on ISO 14001 and EMS projects. Additionally, my soil science knowledge contributed to my understanding of environmental contamination and pollution prevention.

My biggest surprise came early: I initially thought Occupational Safety was mainly about safety hazards and regulations. I quickly learned it is fundamentally about building relationships and communicating with employees. Shadowing incident investigations and safety drills highlighted how effective safety depends on effective communication and trust which are skills that extend beyond technical compliance.

This internship taught me that Environmental Health & Safety is not just about following regulations; it is about understanding people and impacts. My time at Promega has given me a stronger set of technical skills, deeper environmental knowledge, and a clearer vision of how to contribute meaningfully to the workplace and environmental health in my future career. Overall, this internship solidified my commitment to pursuing environmental science professionally and I look forward to using my education and experience in my future career.

Ethan Hazra, Process Engineer Co-Op

Over the past 8 months, I have had the privilege and the opportunity to work as a Process Engineering Co-op supporting bulk production processes at Promega’s Feynman Center. As a process engineering co-op, I have been responsible for the identification, diagnosis, and resolution of issues on bulk manufacturing equipment on both the tank-mixing and lyophilization systems.

During my time, I worked on a variety of projects across the building with a diverse group of teams. One of my most complicated projects involved arranging the welding of metal outlet valve supports onto a mix tank in a clean room (ECR). Hot work and ECR regulations don’t mix well, and working with both was especially challenging for an immobile, plastic tank. I had to jump through many hoops by ensuring that monitoring systems were temporarily shut down, that welding equipment was cleaned correctly, and that the finished welds were polished and sanitary, but doing so kept production running and reduced downtime and expenses.

Completing these projects required me to draw on my learning from school, particularly for problem-solving skills. Though many of the devices and situations I have worked with during my time at Promega have differed from typical textbook material, the core thinking strategies have remained the same. Whether it’s calculating the viscous drag on an exam or figuring out hot work permits at the Feynman Center, process engineering has taught me to reason through tasks and get help when I need it. There were many applications of these problem-solving skills that I wasn’t expecting, too. Communicating with vendors on equipment orders, writing technical documentation, and troubleshooting coding bugs on automated processes all demonstrated to me the value of my classroom education and showed me when and where to make use of my reasoning skills.

As I head back to class this fall, there is a lot I’ll take away from my time at Promega. The connections I’ve made and the hands-on industrial experience I’ve gained will no doubt reframe the way I see my education and allow me to extract even more value from my classes. Additionally, the opportunity to work at Promega has reinforced my passion for engineering of all kinds, especially when it lets me work with others. I’m very grateful to have been able to contribute to the work done at Promega and am very excited for what’s next.

Ashley Leighton, Corporate Hospitality Intern

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a Corporate Hospitality Intern at Promega. My main project focused on improving reports within Lodgical, the software used by the Guest House team. Several of the reports contained inaccurate or difficult-to-read information, which meant the team often had to export data and manually reorganize it before it could be useful.

Throughout my internship, I analyzed these reports, identified trends and gaps, and created proposals for how they could be improved. One of the biggest issues I worked on was an incorrect unit count that was affecting occupancy percentages throughout the system. By researching the source of the problem and creating clear documentation for the Lodgical vendor, I was able to help get the issue corrected and permanently implemented within the software. I also redesigned other reports to remove unnecessary information and make important trends easier to recognize at a glance. Those improvements are continuing through the implementation process and will help give the Guest House team clearer and more consistent information moving forward.

My internship is connected closely with my Consumer Behavior & Marketplace Studies coursework at UW-Madison. Although much of my project involved data, I learned that improving a report is also about understanding the person who is using it. Thinking about what information the team needed helped me create solutions that were accurate and practical.

One of the biggest learning opportunities for me was realizing how important documentation and communication are when trying to create change. The team was already aware that some of the reporting issues existed, but clearly showing what was wrong, why it mattered and how it could be improved helped me move the process forward. My project showed me that identifying a problem is only one part of problem solving, and that being able to communicate a solution is just as important.

I will take stronger analytical, problem-solving and communication skills with me from this experience. Most importantly, I learned how small improvements behind the scenes can make everyday work easier and give a team greater confidence in the information they use.

Interested in interning at Promega? Keep an eye on our Careers page for Summer 2025 internship opportunities!

A New Human Neuron Model for Tau-Targeted Drug Screening

Posted on by Johanna Lee

Every neuron relies on a protein called tau to keep its internal skeleton, the microtubule network, working properly. In a group of brain diseases known as “tauopathies,” tau stops doing its job. It misfolds, clumps together, and eventually contributes to the neuron loss that causes memory changes and shifts in behavior. Scientists studying these diseases have long wanted to watch this process unfold from its earliest moments in living human neurons. However, this has been surprisingly difficult.

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From Chromosomes to the Brain: How HaloTag Is Expanding What We Can See

Posted on by Michele Arduengo, PhD
Artist's 3D concept of HaloTag with linker attaching to a target protein

Sometimes in the life sciences, it’s really tempting to look at a process like mitosis and think, “Wow, we really understand that,” and stop asking questions. In other cases, significant barriers like reliable expression of a non-endogenous reporter in an organ such as the brain is a challenge that seems impossible to overcome. However, those are precisely the moments when science and scientists need to push the boundaries of what we can see. In this post, I discuss two studies where researchers are literally seeing what could not be seen before by developing new methods for looking at their model systems.

In both papers discussed here, the HaloTag® protein and ligands were key to developing new methods allowing scientists to visualize biological phenomena that had been previously inaccessible. HaloTag® protein allows different functionalities to be linked onto a single genetic construct, rapidly and covalently under physiological conditions for experiments ranging from live-cell imaging to capture of protein interaction complexes (1). In the first study, HaloTag-CENP-A + JF635 ligand was the specific tool that let them directly see, in real time, that chromosome-attached microtubules pivot as the spindle elongates. In the second study, HaloTag was used to create a protocol for PET imaging of reporter gene systems in the brain.

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Midges on the Move: Tracking The Oropouche Virus Into New Territory

Posted on by Anna Bennett

For decades, Oropouche virus (OROV) was considered a problem limited to the Amazon Rainforest. OROV is transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of tiny blood-feeding insects called Culicoides midges. The virus causes Oropouche fever, which leads to debilitating symptoms like a high fever and severe headache1. While the virus was first isolated in Trinidad in 1955, it has since been associated primarily with outbreaks in the Amazon Basin. However, in the last two years, over 29,000 confirmed cases have been reported across the Americas, suggesting the virus has expanded well beyond its historical range.

One of the most concerning expansions is the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Unlike the Amazon, Minas Gerais sits within the Atlantic Forest biome, a heavily fragmented landscape shaped by agriculture, urbanization, and a climate distinct from the humid tropics where OROV has traditionally circulated. With more than 1,600 cases of Oropouche fever since January 2024, a consortium of researchers from universities in Brazil and the US have combined their efforts to try to understand the urgent question: what is driving OROV transmission in this unfamiliar territory2?

Image of flies swarming in the sky.
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From a Dying Reef in French Polynesia to a Global Restoration Mission: Meet the Coral Gardeners

Posted on by Alena Nickolenko

Titouan Bernicot founded Coral Gardeners, a nonprofit driving coral reef restoration, at just 18 years old. He was born on a pearl farm on a small atoll, a ring-shaped coral island, in French Polynesia. Instead of playing in the dirt with neighborhood friends after school, Bernicot, the only kid on the little atoll, spent his childhood in the water, immersed in the colorful and flourishing life around him (1). With no shops or markets, the community sustained themselves only with what the island had to offer, therefore relying on a thriving local ecosystem. “A really connected-to-nature way of living” says Bernicot (2). Largely disconnected from the rest of the human world but uniquely integrated with the natural one.

Photo Credit: Coral Gardeners

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Under Pressure: The Nuclear Choreography upon Replicative Stress

Posted on by Promega

Today’s blog is guest-written by Jana Krietsch (University of Zurich), edited by Nour Mozaffari (Promega)

Each time a cell divides, it must make an accurate copy of its entire genome—in human cells, this means roughly 6.2 billion individual DNA building blocks to duplicate. This enormous molecular task takes place inside the nucleus, a crowded, highly organized, yet remarkably dynamic environment. As the DNA-copying machinery moves along the genome, it may encounter roadblocks such as damaged DNA, sequences that are difficult to copy, tightly packed chromatin, or other molecular processes using the same DNA at the same time. These obstacles can slow or stall replication, a phenomenon known as DNA replication stress.

A Hidden Vulnerability of Cancer Cells

Cells are well equipped to deal with replication stress. Depending on the type and severity of the problem, they activate specialized signaling and repair mechanisms that protect replicating DNA. Failure of these responses can jeopardize genome integrity and result in permanent genetic changes that contribute to disease development.

In cancer, oncogenic changes and rapid proliferation places tumor cells under persistent replication stress. This promotes genome instability, a cancer hallmark, and drives tumor evolution. At the same time, it makes cancer cells hyper-dependent on replication stress response mechanisms to survive, creating a hidden vulnerability. Several treatments exploit this Achilles’ heel by increasing replication stress levels beyond what cancer cells can tolerate.

From Sequential Model to Dynamic Choreography

Many stress response pathways have been successfully reconstituted in the test tube. They are typically described as linear sequence of events triggered when an active replication site, termed replication fork, encounters a roadblock: the fork encounters an obstacle, its structure changes, signaling proteins are activated, repair factors are recruited, and DNA synthesis eventually resumes.

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ADC Development: The Questions Running in the Background

Posted on by Elise Johnson

You’ve had food stuck in your teeth at some point during a conversation you thought was going well. Or toilet paper trailing from the back of your shoe on a day you felt particularly put together. Maybe you’ve even forgotten to color in your very blonde eyebrows and spent the rest of the day looking like someone erased the top half of your face. But you had no idea. You’re walking around with the quiet, complete confidence of someone operating on incomplete information.

You weren’t wrong about anything you could see. You just couldn’t see everything, which is a different problem than getting a bad result. A bad result tells you something is wrong, but this doesn’t. This happens in the lab too. The number is clean, the program is advancing, and somewhere in the data, something is happening that your readout has no way to show you.

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development has a version of this problem. The cytotoxicity readout is real, reliable, and correct. It’s also an aggregate, and an aggregate compresses everything that happened into a single number. That number can’t tell you which mechanisms produced it, which ones are underperforming, or what to change if the program stops working. It just tells you cells died, or they didn’t. You’re walking around with the quiet, complete confidence of someone operating on incomplete information.

Cytotoxicity: Where Every Program Begins

Cell viability assays were built to answer one question: did the cells die? Increase the dose, more cells die. Decrease it, fewer do. The curve is clean, the data is reliable, and the payload is doing what it was designed to do. For cytotoxicity, it’s the right question to ask.

That question has an established platform with consistent, reproducible data: our CellTiter-Glo® and RealTime-Glo™ Assays.

For most ADC programs, this is where the measurement work starts and stops, but it should only be where it starts. The question they answer well is only one of several your ADC is raising. The number means what it says, but the question it answers has a boundary, and the boundary leaves you with an incomplete picture.

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Why Antibiotic Resistance Is an Environmental Problem Too

Posted on by Shannon Sindermann
Antibiotics and Bacteria

Antibiotic resistance has an obvious suspect: antibiotics. The more we use them across human and animal medicine, the more we select for the bacteria that survive them (1). But that pressure doesn’t only come from the drugs we designed to kill bacteria. A growing line of research points to the fields, soils and waterways where our food is grown, and to chemicals that were never meant to be antibiotics at all (2,3). It is a reminder of what researchers mean by One Health: human, animal and environmental health are one connected system, not three separate problems, and resistance travels the connections between them (1,3).

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Time Capsules in the Language of Science

Posted on by Elise Johnson

In elementary school, I spent an art class layering greens. Jungle green fabric with a subtle coordinating stripe, delicate spring green tissue paper so translucent you could see through it, pieces of chunky emerald felt cut into the shape of leaves, sparkling seafoam and teal glitter, all of it pressed and glued onto a piece of tagboard in what my teacher called a monochromatic collage. All shades of one color. Mono: one. Chroma: color. I didn’t think about the word at the time because I was too busy glittering.

That same week, I took a science quiz on monocots and dicots and got the answer wrong. I couldn’t remember which plants had one seed leaf and which had two. When I got the test back and saw my error, it clicked. Of course a monocot has one seed leaf. I’d been using mono in art class while missing it on a science quiz down the hall. The root moved between rooms, but I hadn’t learned yet that it could.

That stuck with me. Although my formal education is in English and linguistics, my mind naturally sought out scientific connections. Greek and Latin roots were the place where those two interests didn’t have to compete. They had the precision of formulas, a combinatorial logic where twenty roots could unlock hundreds of words, and they worked on both sides of the hallway.

I write about science now, and the roots have remained my constant companion. A few weeks ago I was researching an organism called Rapaza viridis for a blog post on endosymbiosis. I’d never heard of it, but since viridis is Latin for green (the same root that gives us “verdant”), I already guessed this creature had something to do with photosynthesis. It does. R. viridis is a single-celled predator that steals chloroplasts from the algae it hunts and uses them to photosynthesize.

Learning more about the organism, I came across the term “transient chimerism.” Also new to me, but also immediately legible. The trans in “transient” is the same as in “transparent” and “transport”: ‘across,’ ‘through.’ Something passing through. Chimera: the Greek monster stitched together from a lion, a goat, and a serpent. Put together: a temporary state of being made from parts of more than one organism. The roots came through for me once again.

This keeps happening. I’ll hit a term I’ve never seen, and its pieces already feel familiar. I could spend this entire blog walking through terms and showing you their roots, but definitions only stay interesting for so long (and my family already compares me to the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding). What I’ve become more interested in is something the roots do beyond defining. The roots that end up in a name tend to carry more than a definition. They carry an interpretation, an argument about the thing itself.

For years, I wondered about apoptosis. I knew apo meant ‘away from.’ I could see ptosis maybe shared something with “asymptote,” but I couldn’t figure out what cell death had to do with calculus. In 1972, John Kerr, an Australian pathologist, had been studying a form of cell death that looked nothing like anything he’d seen before. For most of pathology’s history, the only cell death anyone studied was the kind that showed up when something had gone wrong: a cell damaged by injury or infection or toxins, dying violently. That kind of death had a name: necrosis, from the Greek nekros (‘corpse’). The cell swells, ruptures, spills its contents, and triggers inflammation. Studying liver tissue, Kerr noticed a second kind of death happening quietly alongside it, in cells that hadn’t been damaged at all. The cell death he was watching was the opposite. The cell shrank, and its contents condensed. It broke apart into tidy packages that neighboring cells quietly absorbed. No mess. The body had planned this.

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New Approach Methodologies: Guidelines for Biological Ground Truths

Posted on by Simon Moe

FDA Regulation changes: The Problem is still Validation

In March 2026, the FDA published draft guidance that fundamentally changed how NAMs (New Approach Methodologies) are evaluated in drug development. If you’re designing NAMs, whether that be spheroids, organoids, or organs-on-a-chip, your model now must meet specific validation criteria set by regulators. This draft document, titled ‘General Considerations for the Use of New Approach Methodologies in Drug Development’ provides requirements on the use of NAMs, including in vitro, in silico and in chemico methods (FDA & CDER, 2026). This guidance is a big shift from aspirational recommendations towards clearer regulatory recommendations.

It comes on the coattails of consistent feedback and challenges the market has seen over the past few years as they attempt to transition and optimize away from animal models. Mainly being:

“How can I be sure the data I get from this non-animal model is reliable, trustworthy and relevant?”

This regulatory mandate from the FDA requires researchers to use models and assays that meet four validation criteria:

  • Context of use
  • Human biological relevance
  • Technical characterization
  • Fit-for-purpose

This guidance initially applies to antibody development, biologics, and will eventually be relevant for small molecules. The momentum in the market is sound and indicates that there is a real need for assays that meet these new requirements.

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