The INBRE Southeast Region states have established a collaborative undergraduate summer program starting during the summer of 2012. The focus of the internship is bioinformatics with the purpose of maintaining a program of distinction with quality experiences for undergraduate student participants. The bioinformatics projects integrate computer science and one of the life sciences (biology, psychology, chemistry). The summer program offers students an opportunity to work on a variety of high quality projects.

Two undergraduate students participating in the BIUS program have been accepted in the WV-INBRE Summer Research Program. They are performing their research internship at Marshall University Joan C. Edward School of Medicine. Alonna Ballinger, from Western Kentucky University, is working in Dr. Travis Salisbury's lab. The title of her project is "Using genome-wide gene expression profiling technology and bioinformatics to characterize novel mechanisms of adipocyte-stimulated breast cancer cell growth". Dr. Philippe Georgel serves as Casie James' mentor. Casie is a senior undergraduate student at Tulane University. The title of her project is "Using genome-wide sequencing to identify breast cancer-related genes". Dr. Jim Denvir serves as co-mentor for both interns.