Research Intern (Academic Credit)

About the Role

The Research Internship program at Cedars-Sinai provides students and trainees with an opportunity to develop basic research skills. Interns will experience and observe various aspects of basic, translational, and clinical research, gaining knowledge about career options in healthcare research. This internship typically lasts no more than twelve months and exposes participants to diverse clinical and non-clinical research investigations.

Department & Mentor Overview

The Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s and Memory Disorders clinic is located within the Cedars-Sinai Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion. The Center oversees the care of over 500 patients annually and houses a multidisciplinary team including specialists in behavioral neurology, neuropsychiatry, geriatric medicine, geriatric psychiatry, memory disorder nurse practitioners, neuropsychologists, and a social worker. Center research personnel include a research manager and a memory disorders clinical research coordinator.

Dr. Mitzi Gonzales, Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of Translational Research for the Goldrich Center, is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and clinician scientist focused on biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease risk.

Dr. Sarah Kremen, Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neurobehavior Program, is a board-certified neurologist specializing in neurobehavior and neuropsychiatry. Her research areas include clinicopathological correlation in neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease clinical trials, and the impact of new diagnostics and therapies.

Drs. Gonzales and Kremen co-lead the Goldrich Observational ADRD Longitudinal studies, in which the intern will participate.

Role Summary & Objectives

The Research Intern will work with an interdisciplinary team of neuropsychologists, neurologists, geriatricians, and clinical researchers specializing in aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The intern will be immersed in the clinical research process, gaining experience in study design and implementation. Participants will engage in two clinical research studies:

• The GOAL Study: An internally funded project to establish a longitudinal cohort of individuals across the ADRD continuum.
• The RAPID study: Deploys brief cognitive testing and questionnaires relevant to ADRD.

The intern will learn fundamental clinical research skills in aging and ADRD, including best practices for informed consent, human subjects' protection, clinical cohort study design, and community-based participatory research engagement. The overarching goal is to provide foundational clinical research skills for future independent research projects. Additionally, the intern will learn data management skills using REDCap, basic statistical analyses, hypothesis development, and abstract writing. The successful candidate will develop and implement a clinical research project using existing datasets and produce an abstract for potential submission to a research conference.

Key Responsibilities & Timeline

• January 15th - January 31st: Human subjects training; research ethics, fundamentals of the informed consent process.
• February 1st – February 14th: Clinical research study design review; discussion of observational research projects; protocol review.
• February 15th – March 14th: Overview of community-engaged research, introduction to neurodegenerative diseases; observations of observational clinical research procedures; attendance at outreach events; attend consensus reviews and team meetings; introduction to data coding, REDCap; research literature review.
• March 15th – April 14th: Introduction to cognitive assessments; hands-on administration practice; observations of observational clinical research procedures; attendance at outreach events; attend consensus reviews and team meetings; data quality assurance and management; research hypothesis generation.
• April 15th – May 15th: Observations of observational clinical research procedures; attendance at outreach events; attend consensus reviews and team meetings; research hypothesis testing and basic statistics, research abstract writing.
• All weeks: Mentorship in clinical trial design, implementation, data management, statistics, and abstract writing.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Human subjects training
• Research ethics
• Informed consent process
• Clinical research study design
• Observational research projects
• Protocol review
• Community-engaged research
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Observational clinical research procedures
• Outreach events
• Consensus reviews
• Team meetings
• Data coding
• REDCap
• Research literature review
• Cognitive assessments
• Data quality assurance and management
• Research hypothesis generation
• Research hypothesis testing
• Basic statistics
• Research abstract writing
• Clinical trial design
• Clinical trial implementation
• Data management
• Statistical analyses

Qualifications

• Must be 18 years of age or older.
• Must have a HS Diploma or GED.
• Must reside in the greater Los Angeles area or surrounding cities while conducting all activities related to the intern or visitor appointment.
• Must receive academic credit for the duration of the internship.