13 Biotechnology Research Programs for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
If you’re a high school student interested in biotechnology, joining a research program can give you exposure to how modern biological science is actually conducted. Rather than just learning about genetics or molecular biology in theory, you may work in a lab, analyze experimental data, or study how biotechnology is applied in medicine, agriculture, or environmental science. These programs are typically structured around mentorship and project-based learning, helping you understand how research questions are developed, tested, and communicated.
Why should I participate in a biotechnology research program in high school?
Biotechnology research programs stand out for their emphasis on hands-on skill development. You might practice techniques such as micropipetting, PCR, cell culture, or bioinformatics analysis, while also learning how to design experiments and interpret results. Many are hosted by universities, research institutes, or biotech organizations and are designed to mirror real lab environments.To help get you started, we’ve put together a list of 13 biotechnology research programs for high school students.
If you’re looking for online STEM summer programs, check out our blog here.
Location: Remote. Available worldwide
Cost / Stipend: Varies by program type. Full financial aid available
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Selective
Application deadline: Rolling. Varies by cohort
Program dates: Multiple cohorts in summer, fall, winter, and spring. Program length ranges from 12 weeks to 1 year
Eligibility: High school students with strong academic performance and clear intellectual curiosity
Designed for students who want early exposure to academic research, the Lumiere Research Scholar Program pairs you with a PhD mentor for one-on-one guidance on an independent research project. You’ll choose a topic across fields like biotechnology, chemistry, data science, engineering, psychology, economics, or international relations, and work through the research process from literature review to methodology design and writing. Over the course of the program, you develop a formal research paper while gaining experience in scholarly writing, research ethics, and academic inquiry. The structure is flexible and fully online, making it accessible from anywhere, with cohorts offered throughout the year. Mentorship is a central component, so you receive individualized feedback and support rather than large-group instruction. The program is often used by students to explore research careers, build academic portfolios, or prepare for future lab-based internships and university-level research.
Location: Stanford University, Stanford
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Highly selective. About 20 students
Application deadline: November 30
Program dates: June 15 to August 7
Eligibility: High school students from all backgrounds. Prior lab experience not required
Built around hands-on biomedical research, STaRS gives you the chance to work directly in a Stanford research lab alongside clinician-scientist mentors. Over eight weeks, you’ll conduct a guided research project while learning core lab techniques like histology, imaging, and genotyping, supported by lectures and skills workshops. The program focuses on curiosity and initiative, inviting motivated beginners to apply. Participants will showcase their research at the end and network with faculty, graduate students, and peers interested in healthcare and biomedical science. With a small, mentorship-oriented cohort, it provides a solid introduction to research careers in medicine, bioengineering, and translational science.
Location: Programs hosted in Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Boston
Cost / Stipend: Varies by location and track. Financial aid available
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Small group cohorts of about 7 to 10 students per class. Overall selectivity not publicly disclosed
Application deadline: Rolling admissions across multiple summer cohorts
Program dates: Two week sessions during the summer
Eligibility: Students age 13 to 18 enrolled in middle or high school
The Academic Insights Program lets high school students experience university life firsthand. You will live on campus, study in small groups of 7-10, and learn from tutors from top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Participants can explore a wide range of subjects, spanning over 20 options, including Architecture, AI, Business Management, Computer Science, Economics, Medicine, Philosophy, and more. The courses are experiential and focus on hands-on learning. You may find yourself conducting dissections in medicine, designing a robotic arm in engineering, participating in a moot court for law, or building creative writing portfolios and business case studies. By the end of the program, you’ll complete a personal project and receive written feedback and a certificate of completion. You can find more about the application process here!
Location: Stanford University, Stanford
Cost / Stipend: No cost to participate. Application fee required. Stipend provided
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Highly selective. About 200 students accepted each year across all institutes
Application deadline: November 30
Program dates: June 15 to August 7
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors age 16 or older by the program start
Stepping into a Stanford lab as a high school researcher is a rare chance to see how biomedical science actually happens at a world-class research institution. In SIMR, you’re paired one-on-one with a faculty mentor in areas like immunology, neuroscience, cancer biology, bioengineering, stem cells, genetics, cardiovascular biology, or bioinformatics, and work on a real research project across eight weeks. If lab research isn’t your focus, the Bioengineering Team Internship and Bioengineering Bootcamp offer a design-driven track where you collaborate in teams to identify medical needs, build prototypes, and test engineering solutions using Stanford’s maker spaces and labs. Throughout the program, you attend lectures on cutting-edge topics, learn research methods such as literature reviews and experimental design, and develop technical skills in programming, CAD, 3D printing, PCR, and circuit design. Teams present their work at a final poster session, and some projects even continue beyond the summer.
Location: Palo Alto at Stanford University
Cost / Stipend: Free. Application fee required. Need based fee waivers and scholarships available
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Small and highly selective cohort with a local focus
Application deadline: February 28
Program dates: June 15 to August 6
Eligibility: Bay Area high school students from Alameda County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, or Santa Cruz County. Students age 16 or older with a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.0 and background in biology, chemistry, or computer programming.
Spending a summer immersed in genomics research gives you a close-up look at how modern biology is done in an academic lab setting. In GRIPS, you’re placed in a Stanford research laboratory and work closely with a mentor on a genomics-focused project, committing to a structured schedule of four hours a day, five days a week. Beyond lab work, the program includes panels on biomedical career paths, seminars, and regular mentor check-ins that help contextualize your research within broader scientific and professional trajectories. The experience emphasizes scientific thinking, experimental design, and research responsibility, while also encouraging reflection on diversity and inclusion in science through application essays and program discussions. With its local cohort and mentorship-heavy structure, GRIPS offers a concentrated introduction to genomics research and the daily rhythms of academic science.
Location: Internships across Massachusetts
Cost / Stipend: Paid. $17 per hour. Up to about $4,080 total
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Varies by employer and region. Rolling placements
Application deadline: Rolling admissions
Program dates: About 6 weeks. Duration varies by internship
Eligibility: Students age 16 or older who attend or recently graduated from a vocational technical high school, a Gateway City public high school, or a public high school with at least 25 percent low income classification
Designed to broaden access to biotech and biomedical careers, this program connects underrepresented high school students with paid life sciences internships at approved employers across Massachusetts. Host organizations hire interns directly, typically one or two per company, while larger research institutions may host bigger cohorts. Additionally, some districts offer a structured pre-internship training program that develops foundational lab skills and professional workplace competencies before placements begin. Internships can span industry, academic labs, and research institutions, offering early exposure to how biotech organizations operate day to day. With its paid structure and targeted outreach, the program serves as both a workforce pipeline and an entry point into scientific research and industry roles for students who might not otherwise access these opportunities.
Location: Genspace, Brooklyn
Cost / Stipend: No cost. $2,000 stipend
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Selective. Cohort size varies each year
Application deadline: Applications open November 1. Exact deadline announced later
Program dates:Spring: February 25 to May 21Summer: July 6 to August 14
Eligibility: New York City public or charter high school students age 16 or older who live or attend school within about 45 minutes of Genspace and commit from February through August
Set up as a long-form research apprenticeship, this program blends after-school training with an intensive summer lab experience. You spend several months learning core biology and genetic engineering techniques, then collaborate with scientists and peers to design and carry out a research project. In addition to lab work, the curriculum focuses on science communication through workshops, improv-based exercises, and public presentations to teach you how to explain research to non-scientists. The program also features lab tours, field trips to biotech firms, and guided mentorship from active researchers, providing a solid foundation in experimental biology. With a paid stipend and a focus on students historically excluded from STEM, the experience combines technical skill-building, career exploration, and professional mentorship in a real research environment.
Location: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay
Cost: Not specified
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Highly selective. 16 students selected across Maine
Application deadline: April 10
Program dates: May 17 to May 22
Eligibility: High school juniors in Maine attending public, private, or homeschool programs with interest in ocean or environmental science
This program places you alongside working scientists to study the local ocean environment through both field and lab-based work in marine research. You collect samples, analyze data, and explore biological, chemical, and geological aspects of marine ecosystems, gaining exposure to how real scientific research is conducted. The program highlights research methods, data integration, and scientific communication, providing a practical understanding of careers in ocean science or environmental research. With a small group from Maine, it offers close engagement with researchers and a dedicated, hands-on research setting.
Location: Northwestern University, Evanston
Cost / Stipend: Paid stipend
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: 6 students
Application deadline: February 27
Program dates: June 22 to August 7
Eligibility: High school, two year college, and four year college students who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents in the United States
In this program, you can join an ongoing regenerative engineering research project and work directly with Professor Guillermo Ameer’s team on the EFRI Epigenetic Cell Reprogramming In Situ project. The research focuses on chromatin structure, transcriptional regulation, cellular plasticity, and strategies to induce stem-like states for tissue regeneration, combining cell biology, materials science, physics, and nanoscale imaging. You gain hands-on wet-lab experience in cellular reprogramming, data analysis, and experimental design while receiving structured mentorship and professional development training. The program is research-intensive and designed to expose you to interdisciplinary bioengineering research workflows rather than classroom instruction. With only six participants, you get close mentorship and direct integration into an active research group.
Location: University of Arizona, Tucson
Cost: Free to participate. Includes 3 units of MCB academic credit
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: About 30 to 50 students selected each year
Application deadline: December 18
Program dates: June 1 to July 17
Eligibility: High school students age 16 or older by June 1 with at least one year of residency in Arizona and full availability during the program
The KEYS Research Internship is a seven-week, lab-based summer program hosted at the University of Arizona that integrates high school students into active bioscience research groups. Before arriving on campus, participants complete preparatory modules in science literacy, biotechnology, and data science to establish foundational knowledge. The program opens with an intensive training week focused on interdisciplinary lab techniques, safety protocols, and research methods. Students then spend six weeks embedded in a university research lab, contributing to projects in areas such as biomedicine, computational biology, and molecular biosciences under faculty and graduate student supervision. The internship concludes with a formal research presentation, and participants earn 3 MCB units while joining the KEYS alumni research network.
Location: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle
Cost / Stipend: Paid internship. Financial award provided after successful completion. Housing and transportation not provided
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: About 20 to 30 students selected each year. Estimated acceptance rate about 5 to 10 percent
Application deadline: March 13
Program dates: June 22 to August 14
Eligibility: High school students entering senior year, age 16 or older by the program start. Applicants must live in the Greater Seattle area in Washington. Strong academic interest in science required. Full time availability required. U.S. students only
Fred Hutch’s SHIP program is an eight-week biomedical research internship designed for students entering their senior year who live in the Greater Seattle area. The first two weeks are devoted to structured laboratory training, where participants learn core wet-lab techniques including pipetting, sterile technique, DNA extraction, PCR, gel electrophoresis, tissue culture (non-primate), and blood processing. Lectures and discussions introduce foundational scientific concepts, including the central dogma of molecular biology and hematopoiesis. During weeks three through eight, interns are placed in research labs in pairs, contributing to ongoing cancer and biomedical research projects through tasks such as preparing reagents, assisting with experiments, maintaining cell cultures, recording data, and attending lab meetings. Cohort-wide sessions run in parallel, covering topics such as research ethics, biostatistics, health disparities, data visualization, and scientific communication, as well as college-readiness workshops.
Location: Nationwide across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico
Cost / Stipend: Paid internship. $3,000 stipend
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Varies by location. Limited placements
Application deadline: Varies by location
Program dates: Eight week summer internship
Eligibility: High school students from groups underrepresented in science
This eight-week paid internship pairs you with a fisheries or aquatic science professional mentor within a 45-minute commute of your home. Each participant is matched with a local fisheries biologist, researcher, or environmental manager within commuting distance of their home. Fieldwork may include fish population surveys, electrofishing, snorkel-based habitat assessments, aquatic vegetation monitoring, and water quality testing, while laboratory tasks may include specimen analysis and data entry. Interns also observe regulatory processes, conservation planning, and fisheries management practices specific to their region. Many placements include participation in community outreach or youth education initiatives, providing experience in communicating scientific concepts to the public. Because placements vary by mentor organization, the experience reflects real-world differences across state agencies, tribal programs, nonprofits, and research institutions.
Location: Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas Medical Center, Houston
Cost / Stipend: Paid stipend available
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Limited placements
Application deadline: January 30
Program dates: May 27 to August 1
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors age 16 or older by the program start
Houston Methodist’s High School Research Internship Program places students in translational research labs within the Texas Medical Center for a structured summer experience. Interns are paired with faculty mentors and often work alongside undergraduate researchers on projects related to biomedical science, clinical innovation, or healthcare technology. Daily responsibilities may include preparing reagents, assisting with experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and documenting procedures in accordance with research protocols. In addition to lab work, participants attend seminars and professional development sessions that introduce topics such as research ethics, scientific careers, and pathways into medicine or biomedical research. Networking events and workshops provide exposure to clinicians and scientists across the institution. The internship culminates in a research symposium where students present a scientific poster summarizing their work and findings.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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