Sample cover letter for Internship position at Cyberonics

I am a Master in Bioengineering at Rice University and will be graduating this spring i.e. May 2016. The opportunity to be a part of an internship program at Cyberonics is a tremendous opportunity to learn from the best. I found about this opportunity through Rice Graduate Student Association mail list.

During my under-graduation, I had completed various projects in the field of medicine. Besides, I received training at the Fortis Hospital, New Delhi (India) in departments of hematology, biochemistry, histopathology and clinical pathology. The training was an opportunity for me to put theoretical concepts in practice. Through another four-week training at the Neurobiology Laboratory in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India), I modeled behavioral tests for analyzing diseased animals, which included Morris water maze, open field and light and dark chamber test. I also performed the dissection of wistar rats and their brain to do protein extraction. Not only this, I have completed a short-term course in “Computer-Aided Drug Designing” at DNA Labs, Hyderabad (India) after becoming inspired from the concept of “personalized medicine”. The purpose was to use computational chemistry to discover, improve or study drugs and related biologically active molecules. I worked on Accelrys Discovery Studio in order to perform various simulations, ligand optimization and docking studies on a library of molecules that were created by hit-and-trial method targeting the amyloid precursor protein (APP) for Alzheimer’s disease.

Currently, I am working on a research project in Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Lab in Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) under Dr. Jeffrey Jacot. The project involves the fabrication of a temperature-sensitive hydrogel for the treatment for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). The gel consists of two polymers, namely, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). With a particular ratio between these two polymers, the hydrogel is fabricated and will be characterized using sol-gel analysis, rheology, swelling and mechanical properties. The hydrogel has been found to solidify at a temperature around 37°C, which is also the human body’s physiological temperature. This hydrogel has a property of converting into a solid gel upon reaching 32°C but will remain in solution state below this critical temperature. In addition, the hydrogel will also be tested for cell viability, adhesion and proliferation. After successful completion of the in-vitro studies, we are planning to apply this technique in rat and sheep models. Working in TCH was no less than a dream come true and seeing the CDH affected babies with my own eyes was like a reality check. I wanted to help and save the lives of millions of babies around the world. With Dr. Rodrigo Ruano, an expert in fetal intervention, I aim to develop this gel and proceed with trials in rats. In addition, I am also taking course on “Prototyping, Testing and Verification of Medical Technologies” and “Implementation and Commercialization of Medical Technologies” taught by Dr. Eric Richardson.