Medical Research Programs for High School Students (2027)

TL;DR

You’ll find 34 medical research programs below, each with its cost or stipend, dates, deadline, location, and exactly who’s eligible to apply. A summer lab placement puts you inside someone else’s project for a few weeks.Horizon gives you a medical research question that’s yours from start to finish. You’ll work with a professor or PhD mentor on a topic like neuroscience or gene editing, and finish with a research paper you can submit to journals or competitions. It’s fully online, and cohorts start three times a year.

What medical research looks like in high school

Medical research asks how the body works, why disease happens, and what might treat it. In high school, that usually means working in a lab at a cancer center, hospital, or medical school. You might grow cells, run PCR, look at tissue under a microscope, or clean up a set of patient data so a scientist can analyze it. You won’t be treating patients. That’s clinical care, and it’s a different kind of program.

These programs come in a few shapes. Most are six- to ten-week summer placements where you join a working lab and help with a project that’s already running. A few put you on a small team with shared mentors. Some run from fall to spring, a few hours a week. And a couple are online, where you design your own project with a mentor.

What can you research?

Before you pick a program, it helps to know what kind of question you’d want to work on. Here’s what the programs on this page actually study, and where each area fits.

Research area	What you might work on	Programs on this page
Cancer biology	Why tumor cells grow and spread, how a drug changes a cancer cell, what shows up in a tumor’s genes	Broad, St. Jude, Roswell Park, IU Future Scientist, MD Anderson, ResearcHStart, RUYES, Emory Winship, MSK, Fox Chase
Neuroscience	How brain cells talk to each other, what goes wrong in Alzheimer’s or stroke	BRAINYAC, MGH Youth Neurology, Stanford Harris, SIMR, Horizon
Immunology and infectious disease	How the immune system fights viruses, how vaccines work, why some infections resist treatment	Ragon, Broad, SIMR, University of Kentucky
Clinical and data research	How a medication works in children, what patient records show about a disease	Duke STAR, Arthritis Foundation, St. Jude
AI and medicine	Training models on health data, reading medical images with code	Stanford AIMI, Mayo SPARK, Roswell Park
Biomedical engineering	Building and testing tissues, cells, and devices	Tufts TUBERS, SIMR, Horizon

Want concrete project ideas first? Start with our list of medical research topics for high school students or these disease research project ideas. If the lab side of biology pulls you in more than medicine, try the biology research topics list. And if you’d rather work with code than cells, look at bioinformatics research programs too.

How do you get into a medical research program?

Getting in is mostly about timing and paperwork. Here’s the order to do it in.

1. Start in the fall of your junior year. Mayo SPARK and St. Jude both close on December 4, 2026. Duke STAR closes January 6, 2027. Wait until spring and you’ll have missed most of this list.
2. Check the residency line before anything else. It takes ten seconds and rules out half the page. Do it first.
3. Ask for recommendations early. Emory, Duke, Fox Chase, and the Arthritis Foundation each want two letters, and St. Jude needs a teacher recommendation in by the deadline. Give teachers at least three weeks.
4. Find out whether you can apply directly. BRAINYAC only takes students through five partner programs. Tufts TUBERS runs its applications through a state program. Penn State makes you find your own faculty supervisor before you apply. If a program has an extra step, it’s usually why most people miss it.
5. Write about a question, not a career. “I want to be a doctor” tells a reviewer nothing. Pick one thing you’ve wondered about, like why some cancers come back, and explain why it bugs you.
6. Apply to several. Where programs publish a number, most take somewhere between 5 and 50 students. City of Hope took 82 out of 2,100 applicants. Apply to four or five, including at least one local program.

Our full guide on how to get into a top high school research program goes deeper on essays and interviews. And if nothing here works out, you can still find a research lab on your own.

Which group should you start with?

If you…	Start here	Typical cost	How many
Can apply from anywhere and can live near campus for the summer	Programs you can apply to from any state	Free, many pay a stipend	13
Live near a major cancer center or medical school	Programs for students in one city or state	Free, most pay	16
Want research during the school year, or can’t give up your summer	School-year programs	Free or not published	5

Looking for something a little different? Try our lists of medical programs, medical camps, public health research opportunities, or online medical research opportunities.

Medical research programs you can apply to from any state

1. Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)

Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free to attend. $50 application fee, waived if your household earns under $80,000. Stipends are generally not provided, apart from a very limited number given on need.
Dates: June 7 to July 29, 2027 (eight weeks, tentative)
Application deadline: Late February 2027. The application opens December 18, 2026, and the exact closing date hasn’t been posted yet.
Eligibility: Current juniors or seniors, 16 or older by the start date, living in and attending high school in the US. You must be a US citizen or permanent resident.

You’ll join a lab in one of eight Stanford institutes, including immunology, neuroscience, cancer biology, stem cell biology, and bioengineering, and work on a medically focused project with faculty, postdocs, and grad students. The summer ends with a poster session on the last evening. Stanford expects around 50 students.

Two things to know before you apply. You must live with a family member or legal guardian during the program, and Stanford says selection heavily favors Bay Area students. Our guide to applying to SIMR walks through the application in detail.

Who is it right for? Bay Area juniors and seniors who want a full summer in a top medical school lab.

2. City of Hope Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Student Academy

Location: City of Hope, Duarte, CA (in person, no housing or transportation)
Cost: Free. Stipend of $4,000 to $4,500 on completion (the program’s own pages list both figures).
Dates: June 1 to August 6, 2027 (10 weeks, full time)
Application deadline: February 1, 2027. Applications open November 1, 2026.
Eligibility: High school or college students, 16 or older before June 1. US citizen or permanent resident. You should have finished high school biology and chemistry. No research experience needed.

You’ll work full time as a member of a biomedical research team at one of the country’s big cancer centers, on a project matched to your interests. There are seminars and workshops along the way. At the end, you give a short talk or poster and write a three to four page paper, and City of Hope says many students end up named on published papers.

It’s competitive. The program says it accepted 82 students from 2,100 applications in its most recent round.

Who is it right for? Southern California students who can commit to ten full weeks and want a real shot at their name on a paper.

3. Duke Summer Training in Academic Research (STAR) Program

Location: Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC (in person, no housing)
Cost: No tuition. You pay for your own housing and transportation. High school students get a $4,000 stipend.
Dates: June 21 to July 23, 2027 (five weeks in person), plus pre-reading in early June and remote work in early August
Application deadline: January 6, 2027. Applications open November 16, 2026.
Eligibility: Rising seniors and seniors get preference, and rising juniors can apply. US citizen or permanent resident. You need to be 18 by June 21 to shadow physicians, but younger students are still eligible. No research experience needed.

STAR is clinical research, not bench work. You’ll do a literature review, form a hypothesis, and meet weekly with a Duke faculty mentor, with a medical writer and a statistician helping you along. You’ll also sit in on lectures about neonatology, antibiotics, and how drugs are studied in large groups of people. The goal is for every participant to qualify as a co-author on a peer-reviewed paper.

Who is it right for? Rising seniors who like the idea of studying medicines and patient data more than working at a lab bench.

4. Rockefeller University Summer Science Research Program (SSRP)

Location: The Rockefeller University, New York, NY (in person, no housing help)
Cost: Free, with no application fee. Stipends aren’t guaranteed but may be given to students facing financial hardship.
Dates: June 22 to August 6, 2026 (seven weeks, about 35 hours a week)
Application deadline: January 2, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle, with letters due January 5. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Current juniors or seniors, 16 or older by the start date. Students from outside the New York area and outside the US can apply, but the program can’t help with housing, travel, or visas.

SSRP accepts 32 students and splits them into four research teams. Each team has at least three mentors from Rockefeller, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell Medicine, and the topic depends on who’s leading it. You’ll design and present a poster at the closing symposium. You won’t work with patients.

One rule to know: your SSRP findings can’t be entered in science competitions.

Who is it right for? Juniors and seniors who can stay in New York for the summer and like the idea of research as a team sport.

5. Winship Cancer Institute Summer Scholars Research Program at Emory

Location: Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. $2,400 stipend if you finish the program.
Dates: June 8 to July 17, 2026 (six weeks, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays)
Application deadline: Not published. The 2026 application has closed and no newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Rising or graduating seniors, 16 or older by the start date. US citizen or permanent resident. Two recommendation letters, one from a STEM teacher.

You’ll do cancer research one-on-one with a Winship researcher. On top of that, there are faculty lectures, roundtables with cancer survivors, and field trips, including a visit to Emory’s proton therapy center. The program ends with a poster at a symposium. Only 10 to 12 students get in each summer.

Who is it right for? Rising seniors in or near Atlanta who want a small, personal cancer research program.

6. Houston Methodist Summer High School Research Internship

Location: Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas Medical Center, Houston, TX (in person)
Cost: Not published
Dates: June 7 to August 6, 2027 (eight weeks, full time)
Application deadline: January 29, 2027. Applications open December 4, 2026.
Eligibility: Current juniors or seniors, age 16, with at least a 3.5 GPA

This is translational research, meaning work that tries to move a lab finding toward a treatment. You’ll learn lab techniques with a mentor and join seminars, lectures, and career sessions. At the end, you present a poster at a research symposium.

The program doesn’t publish a stipend, housing, or residency rules, so ask before you commit to moving for it.

Who is it right for? Houston-area juniors and seniors with strong grades who want to work inside a hospital research setting.

7. Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute Summer Research Internship

Location: Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH (in person)
Cost: Not published
Dates: Ten weeks in the summer. Exact dates not published.
Application deadline: January 31, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle (the window opened December 15, 2025). No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: 16 or older to work in a Cleveland Clinic research lab. No other rules are published.

You’ll do biomedical lab research in one of Cleveland Clinic’s research labs. The formal internship publishes very little beyond that, including no stipend or housing details.

There’s a second route here. You can also email a lab head directly and ask about a summer or school-year spot, with no fixed deadline. That’s worth trying if you’re local and miss the application window.

Who is it right for? Students in Northeast Ohio who are 16 and ready to reach out to labs on their own.

8. University of Kentucky Summer Research Training Fellowship for High School Students

Location: UK College of Medicine, Lexington, KY (in person)
Cost: Free. $2,500 stipend, paid by direct deposit, so you’ll need a bank account in your name.
Dates: Eight weeks in the summer, 20 to 25 hours a week. Exact dates not published.
Application deadline: April 5, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: 16 or older by June 15, with advanced classes in both biology and chemistry

You’ll work in a microbiology, immunology, or molecular genetics lab under a grad student, postdoc, or scientist. You’ll read up on your project, learn the techniques, and then run your own experiments. There are weekly career lunches, and you finish with a short talk to the department. At least six students are selected.

It’s part time, which makes it one of the easier programs here to fit around a summer job.

Who is it right for? Kentucky students who want real experiments without a full-time schedule.

9. Horizon Academic Research Program

Location: Online
Cost: $6,950 per course. Need-based financial aid for families earning under $75,000.
Dates: Fall, spring, and summer cohorts. Fall and spring run 15 weeks, and summer runs 10 weeks.
Application deadline: Each cohort has its own deadline. Check the program page for the next one.
Eligibility: High school students with at least a 3.67 unweighted GPA

Horizon pairs you with a professor or PhD mentor for a full term of research on a question you choose. For medicine, that means courses like Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Gene Editing and CRISPR, and Protein Biophysics. You’ll spend about 8 to 10 hours a week on it, with help from a writing coach and a publication specialist along the way.

You’ll finish with a research paper of about 5,000 words that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions. Research Seminars run in small cohorts that average four students. Horizon accepted 26% of 6,539 applicants.

Who is it right for? Students who want a medical research project that’s entirely their own, wherever they live.

10. Arthritis Foundation Summer Science Internship Program

Location: UCSF and affiliated institutions, San Francisco, CA (in person, no housing or transportation)
Cost: Free. $2,500 stipend, paid in two parts.
Dates: Eight weeks between June 1 and August 28, 2026, about 40 hours a week
Application deadline: March 9, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: High school juniors, seniors, and college students who are 17 or older by June 1. Two reference letters and transcripts.

You’ll research arthritis and autoimmune disease with a UCSF principal investigator. Depending on your match, that’s basic lab work, clinical epidemiology, or bioinformatics. You finish with a poster and a two-page paper.

The Arthritis Foundation posts this program as a PDF on its science events page rather than a program page, so look there each winter for the new call.

Who is it right for? Bay Area students who are 17 and curious about the immune system.

11. UAB Pre-College Research Internship for Scholarship and Mentoring (PRISM)

Location: UAB Department of Surgery, Birmingham, AL (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. You cover your own housing, meals, transportation, and parking. $1,000 stipend on completion.
Dates: June 8 to July 31, 2026 (eight weeks, full time)
Application deadline: January 19, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: High school juniors who are US citizens or permanent residents, from a disadvantaged background or the first in their family to go to college. There’s no minimum GPA, though a 3.5 or higher is more competitive.

PRISM puts you on a research project with UAB surgeons, often as part of a small team. You’ll also get research seminars, workshops, and time shadowing in the clinic. You must present your research before the program ends. Only five students are picked each year.

Who is it right for? First-generation or lower-income juniors who are curious about surgery.

12. Johns Hopkins Summer Academic Research Experience (SARE)

Location: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, East Baltimore, MD (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. $3,000 stipend on completion.
Dates: June 22 to August 13, 2026 (eight weeks, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays)
Application deadline: March 1, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: High school students from households at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, who also meet one more condition, such as being first-generation or attending a mostly low-income school

About 70% of your time is lab research with a doctoral student or postdoc as your mentor. The rest is coursework in scientific writing, data analysis, math, and bioethics. Some past scholars have become published co-authors.

Who is it right for? Lower-income students who can get to Baltimore and want lab research plus real academic support.

13. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship

Location: Not published
Cost: Not published
Dates: Summer 2027. Exact dates not published, and past cycles ran two weeks.
Application deadline: February 1, 2027. Applications open November 10, 2026.
Eligibility: High school students. No other rules are published.

Stanford’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging runs this short research internship on problems where AI meets medicine, using health data. You’ll work on a project with Stanford faculty and graduate mentors.

Don’t confuse it with AIMI’s one-week Summer Health AI Bootcamp, which has the same deadline and is lectures and activities rather than research. Check which one you’re applying to.

Who is it right for? Students who already code and want a short, focused taste of medical AI research.

Medical research programs for students in one city or state

14. Broad Summer Scholars Program (BSSP)

Location: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA (in person, commuters only)
Cost: Free. $3,600 stipend, plus partial reimbursement for travel.
Dates: June 29 to August 7, 2026 (six weeks)
Application deadline: January 21, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Rising seniors at a Massachusetts high school within commuting distance of the Broad, with a B or better in science and math. US citizen, permanent resident, or non-citizen with work authorization.

You’ll run an original research project in a Broad lab, in areas like cancer biology, psychiatric disease, chemical biology, computational biology, or infectious disease. There are science talks and a college fair along the way, and you finish with a poster for the whole Broad community. The 2026 cohort had 18 scholars.

You can’t take other courses or jobs during program hours, so keep all six weeks clear.

Who is it right for? Massachusetts rising seniors who want to do original work at one of the best-known genomics institutes in the world.

15. Ragon Institute Summer Experience (RISE)

Location: Ragon Institute, Cambridge, MA (in person)
Cost: Paid internship, $17 an hour for 25 hours a week
Dates: June 22 to August 7, 2026 (seven weeks)
Application deadline: February 15, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Rising seniors or students graduating that year, 16 or older, who attend or attended high school in Boston, Cambridge, Everett, Revere, Lynn, Brockton, Chelsea, or another Massachusetts Gateway City. A 3.0 GPA is recommended. You must be allowed to work in the US, and students with economic need get priority.

RISE is a paid immunology research internship in a Ragon faculty lab. It starts with a one-week bootcamp, then adds an immunology course twice a week, journal clubs, and field trips. It ends with final presentations.

Who is it right for? Rising seniors from Massachusetts Gateway Cities who want a paid job doing immunology research.

16. Harvard Medical School Project Success

Location: Harvard Medical School and affiliated labs, Boston, MA (in person)
Cost: Paid internship. The amount isn’t published.
Dates: June 29 to August 14, 2026 (seven weeks, full time)
Application deadline: February 4, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Boston or Cambridge residents in 11th or 12th grade, 16 or older by the start date, with at least a 2.70 GPA. You must have finished algebra, biology, and chemistry.

You’ll do biomedical research in a Harvard Medical School or affiliated lab, guided by postdocs, grad students, and research staff. Weekly STEM seminars and visits to hospitals and biotech companies fill out the summer. You finish by presenting your research at a ceremony at the medical school. The 2026 cohort had nine students.

Who is it right for? Boston and Cambridge students who want paid lab research at Harvard with a lower GPA bar than most programs here.

17. MGH Youth Neurology Education and Research Program

Location: Massachusetts General Hospital labs, Boston, MA (in person)
Cost: Paid internship, 40 hours a week. The rate isn’t published.
Dates: Summer. Exact dates not published.
Application deadline: Not published
Eligibility: Massachusetts high school and college students. The program focuses on female, Black, Latinx, American Indian, and first-generation students.

You’ll be paired with a neurology mentor for full-time research in an MGH lab. Around that, there’s a speaker series, career forums, and leadership workshops, and you finish by presenting your research. MGH says alumni have co-authored papers in journals including Neurology.

The program page doesn’t list this year’s dates or how to apply, so email the program early in the school year to ask.

Who is it right for? Massachusetts students who want paid, full-time neuroscience research.

18. Tufts Biomedical Engineering Research Scholars (TUBERS)

Location: Tufts Science and Technology Center, Medford, MA (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. You’re paid $17 an hour.
Dates: July 6 to August 13, 2027 (six weeks, 35 hours a week)
Application deadline: April 16, 2027
Eligibility: 16 or older, and enrolled in (or graduated in the past two years from) a vocational technical high school, a public high school in a Massachusetts Gateway City, a public high school where at least 25% of students are low-income, or the METCO program

You’ll work in a Tufts biomedical engineering lab on research into cells, tissues, and organs, testing hypotheses alongside your lab supervisor. At the end, you present your findings to the program, your family, and your teachers. With faculty approval, you’re encouraged to enter your work in science competitions.

You apply through the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s High School Apprenticeship Challenge, name TUBERS in your cover letter, and then email a short supplemental form to the program.

Who is it right for? Massachusetts students at eligible schools who want paid engineering research with a medical angle.

19. Memorial Sloan Kettering Summer Student Program

Location: MSK research labs, Upper East Side, New York, NY (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. $1,200 stipend.
Dates: June 29 to August 21, 2026 (eight weeks)
Application deadline: February 6, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Current high school juniors, 14 or older by June, with a 3.5 GPA in science. You must be legally allowed to work in the US and live within 25 miles of MSK’s Upper East Side campus in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.

You’ll spend eight weeks in an MSK lab on a biomedical or computational project, under a mentor. Your project is self-directed but supports the lab’s larger research goals. You’ll also go to lab meetings and development sessions. MSK takes 20 interns each summer.

Who is it right for? New York area juniors who want to work at one of the world’s top cancer centers.

20. Columbia Zuckerman Institute BRAINYAC

Location: Columbia University, New York, NY (in person)
Cost: Not published
Dates: Summer. Exact dates and length not published.
Application deadline: Not published. Columbia expects to open 2027 applications in October 2026, sending them through its partner programs.
Eligibility: New York City 10th and 11th graders enrolled in one of five partner programs: S-PREP, Lang Youth Medical, Double Discovery Center, Columbia Secondary School, or BioBus. Students from upper Manhattan and the South Bronx get preference.

BRAINYAC matches you with a Columbia neuroscientist for a summer research project in their lab. It ends with a final poster presentation.

You can’t apply on your own. If you’re in NYC and interested, joining one of the partner programs is the way in.

Who is it right for? NYC sophomores and juniors already in a partner program who want to study the brain.

21. Roswell Park Summer Research Experience in Cancer (SURE-CAN)

Location: Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY (in person, commuters only)
Cost: Free, with no application fee. Limited funding for a living allowance is available to some students, but the amount isn’t published.
Dates: June 28 to August 6, 2027 (six weeks, 40 hours a week)
Application deadline: Not published yet. The application portal opens in early October 2026.
Eligibility: Juniors (class of 2028), 15 or older at the start, who live and go to school in Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus, or Chautauqua County. US citizen or permanent resident. A personal statement of up to 300 words.

You’ll do mentored cancer research, with training in cancer biology, genomics, imaging, AI methods, statistics, and research ethics. You finish with a technical abstract and a poster at the closing symposium.

Who is it right for? Western New York juniors who want a structured summer of cancer research close to home.

22. Rutgers Youth Enjoy Science (RUYES)

Location: Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Brunswick, NJ (in person)
Cost: Free, and you’re paid for your time. The amount isn’t published.
Dates: Two summers of 9 to 10 weeks each, about 35 hours a week, plus about seven hours a month of activities during the school year
Application deadline: February 23, 2026 was the early decision date for the most recent posted cycle. A final deadline wasn’t confirmed, and no newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Rising juniors or seniors at a New Jersey school, 16 by June 15, and a US citizen or permanent resident. You must also be from a group underrepresented in science, the first in your family to go to college, or from a lower-income background.

RUYES is the longest commitment on this list. You’ll do cancer research in a mentor’s lab for two summers in a row, with training in cancer biology and lab skills in between. You present a poster and a ten-minute talk at the annual research symposium.

Who is it right for? New Jersey students who want two years with the same lab instead of one quick summer.

23. UChicago Medicine ResearcHStart

Location: Partner labs at UChicago, UIC, Northwestern, Rush, and UIUC in Urbana-Champaign (in person, no housing)
Cost: Free. $3,000 taxable stipend.
Dates: June 15 to August 7, 2026 (eight weeks, 35 to 40 hours a week)
Application deadline: Not published. The 2026 application has closed, and you can join the mailing list for 2027 news.
Eligibility: Juniors or seniors when you apply, 16 or older at the start, living in Illinois or Lake County, Indiana

You’ll do full-time cancer research, in areas like cancer immunology, bioengineering, experimental cancer treatments, or cancer disparities. Faculty and research staff mentor you, and there are career workshops and a faculty lecture series. The summer ends with a research symposium for families and scientists.

Who is it right for? Illinois juniors and seniors who want a paid, full-time cancer lab summer.

24. IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center Future Scientist Program

Location: IU School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN (in person)
Cost: Paid internship, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The amount isn’t published.
Dates: June 8 to July 31, 2026 (eight weeks)
Application deadline: February 28, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: Juniors at a Marion County public high school with at least a 3.0 GPA. You may need a work permit, depending on your age.

You’ll spend eight weeks on a cancer research project under a university researcher. You’ll make a scientific poster and present it at the cancer center’s summer poster session. Eight students took part in 2026.

Who is it right for? Indianapolis public school juniors who want a paid first research job.

25. St. Jude High School Research Immersion Program

Location: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN (in person)
Cost: Free. $4,800 stipend.
Dates: June 1 to July 24, 2027 (eight weeks, full time)
Application deadline: December 4, 2026. Your teacher recommendation has to be in by then too.
Eligibility: Current juniors (rising seniors), 16 or older, with at least a 3.0 GPA, at a high school in the Memphis-Shelby County area or nearby counties in Tennessee, Mississippi, or Arkansas. US citizen, non-citizen national, or permanent resident.

You’ll work in pairs with research mentors on laboratory, clinical, or data science projects at one of the country’s leading children’s hospitals. A science educator also helps you draft your college personal statement. It ends with a community exhibition on July 24 where you present your poster.

Who is it right for? Memphis area juniors who want a well-paid research summer and some help with college essays on the side.

26. Mayo Clinic Florida Science Program for the Advancement of Research Knowledge (SPARK)

Location: Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL (in person)
Cost: Not published
Dates: June 8 to December 3, 2027. At least 25 hours a week in the lab over the summer, plus arranged time during the school year.
Application deadline: December 4, 2026. Applications open October 15, 2026.
Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors at high schools in Duval or St. Johns County, Florida, interested in biomedical science

You’ll do lab research with Mayo Clinic investigators in areas like biochemistry, drug development, epidemiology, immunology, cancer biology, AI, neuroscience, and regenerative science. SPARK runs longer than almost anything else here, so you get time to go deep. Many students turn their projects into science fair entries, and Mayo says many have won regional and state awards.

Who is it right for? Jacksonville-area students who want a six-month project they can take to a science fair.

27. MD Anderson King Foundation High School Summer Program in Biomedical Sciences

Location: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (in person, no housing or transportation)
Cost: No tuition. You pay your own housing, transportation, and meals. $7,200 stipend for ten weeks ($6,480 for nine), before taxes.
Dates: June 1 to August 7, 2026 (ten weeks). Students with a late graduation can start June 8.
Application deadline: January 14, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. MD Anderson says 2027 details will be posted in October.
Eligibility: Texas high school seniors graduating that spring, 18 or older by the start date, already accepted to college for the fall, with an interest in allied health careers. US citizen, permanent resident, or holder of a work-eligible visa.

You’ll do full-time lab research under a faculty mentor at one of the country’s top cancer hospitals, with seminars and competitions running alongside the lab work. It ends with presentations and a closing luncheon. Up to six students are selected.

Who is it right for? Texas seniors who are already 18 and want the best-paid program on this page before college starts.

28. Fred Hutch Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)

Location: Fred Hutch Cancer Center, South Lake Union, Seattle, WA (in person, no housing, free transit card)
Cost: Free. You get a financial award if you finish the internship, and the amount is shared at the interview stage.
Dates: June 22 to August 14, 2026 (eight weeks, full time)
Application deadline: March 13, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. Fred Hutch says 2027 details will be posted in November.
Eligibility: Students entering senior year, 16 or older by the start, living in Greater Seattle or nearby. International students aren’t eligible. No research experience needed.

The first two weeks are safety and lab technique training. For the next six, you join a Fred Hutch research group with a mentor, plus cohort seminars three days a week. You finish with a presentation for the community and your family.

Who is it right for? Seattle-area rising seniors who’ve never done research and want proper training first.

29. Children’s Hospital Colorado Child Health Research Internship

Location: Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO (in person)
Cost: Free. $4,400 stipend to help with travel and housing.
Dates: June 1 to July 31, 2026 (nine weeks)
Application deadline: February 1, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle (the window opened December 1, 2025). No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: High school students only if you’re a Colorado senior who’s 18 or older by June 1. The internship is also open to college, graduate, and first-year medical students.

You’ll do a research project in the lab of a Department of Pediatrics faculty mentor, with weekly research seminars on Friday mornings. You finish with a written summary and a talk or poster. There’s funding to present at scientific meetings too.

Most high schoolers won’t qualify yet, since you need to be 18 by June 1. If you’re a young senior, keep it in mind for after graduation.

Who is it right for? Colorado seniors who are already 18 and interested in children’s health.

Medical research programs that run during the school year

30. Stanford Harris Neuroscience Internship

Location: Stanford Neurosurgery. The journal club meets online, and the site doesn’t say whether the rest of the program is in person.
Cost: Not published
Dates: September to May
Application deadline: January 28, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Applications open January 4, 2027.
Eligibility: High school students in the US, with a recommendation from a math or science teacher

You’ll attend weekly neurosurgery Grand Rounds and a monthly virtual journal club, and work on a scholarly project in a neuroscience area you pick, with a Stanford Neurosurgery faculty mentor. You’ll also take on at least one community project. The current cohort has 12 interns.

Who is it right for? Students anywhere in the US who love the brain and want a full school year with a Stanford mentor.

31. Fox Chase Cancer Center Immersion Science Program

Location: Fox Chase Cancer Center teaching lab, Philadelphia, PA (in person)
Cost: Nearly all of it is free. Stipend not published.
Dates: 11 Saturdays from early January to mid-March, in a morning or afternoon section of about three hours
Application deadline: The window opens in mid to late October each year and stays open about three and a half weeks. Exact dates for the winter 2027 session haven’t been posted. The program runs in cycles with enough funding.
Eligibility: 16 or older by the start, living in the Philadelphia tri-state area. You must have finished both high school biology and chemistry, not be taking them now. Two recommendation letters, one from a science teacher.

You’ll start with bootcamp-style lab training and lectures on the cellular basis of cancer. Then you run an independent project on how nutrients and supplements affect cancer signaling, and present it on the last day. Strong finishers can move on to the Fox Chase Summer Fellows Program.

It’s small. There are 16 seats per session, and 20 to 25 applicants get interviewed. The program says it’s not driven by GPA or test scores.

Who is it right for? Philadelphia-area students who want a real research project without giving up a summer.

32. Jackson Laboratory Academic Year Fellowships

Location: JAX campuses in Bar Harbor, ME, Farmington, CT, or New York, NY (in person)
Cost: Unpaid. JAX doesn’t pay students in this program.
Dates: Most start in the fall and run through late spring, with at least 180 hours total
Application deadline: Rolling until August 24, 2026 for the most recent posted cycle. No newer cycle has been posted.
Eligibility: High school juniors or seniors (and college students), 16 or older. The fellowship has to count toward your schooling, through coursework or academic credit from your high school.

You’ll join an active JAX research team in genetics and genomics during the school year, working with faculty, postdocs, or grad students. JAX’s famous summer program no longer takes high school students, so this fellowship is how you get into a JAX lab while you’re still in high school.

Who is it right for? Juniors and seniors near a JAX campus whose school will give them credit for lab work.

33. Penn State College of Medicine High School Research Internships

Location: Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA (in person)
Cost: No fee listed. You pay for any required immunizations.
Dates: Flexible. Internships last weeks or months, and there’s also a one or two day shadowing option.
Application deadline: Rolling. Review takes about a week.
Eligibility: 16 or older and living in the US. You must find a faculty member willing to supervise you before you apply.

This isn’t a structured program. It’s a way to set up your own internship in a Penn State research lab once you’ve found a mentor there. Only the longer internships count as research. The one or two day option is shadowing.

Who is it right for? Self-starters in central Pennsylvania who are comfortable emailing professors.

34. HMRI Year-Round Biomedical Research Internship

Location: Huntington Medical Research Institutes, Pasadena, CA (in person)
Cost: Not published
Dates: Year-round. Students who can commit for a full year get preference.
Application deadline: Rolling until positions are filled. The page still shows applications opening September 1, 2024, so email HMRI to confirm spots are open.
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in high school, college, or graduate school. No other rules are published.

You’ll work alongside HMRI researchers in the lab on diseases of the heart and brain, including Alzheimer’s disease, migraine, vaping and e-cigarette toxicity, cardiovascular signaling, and neuroscience.

Who is it right for? Pasadena-area students who want a long-term lab home during the school year.

Frequently asked questions

When are the deadlines?
Most close between December and February. Here’s what’s been posted as of this update.

Program	Deadline	Cycle
Mayo SPARK	December 4, 2026	2027
St. Jude	December 4, 2026	2027
Duke STAR	January 6, 2027	2027
Stanford Harris	January 28, 2027	2027 to 2028
Houston Methodist	January 29, 2027	2027
City of Hope	February 1, 2027	2027
Stanford AIMI	February 1, 2027	2027
SIMR	Late February 2027	2027
Tufts TUBERS	April 16, 2027	2027
Rockefeller SSRP	January 2, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Arthritis Foundation	March 9, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Broad	January 21, 2026	2026, most recent posted
MD Anderson	January 14, 2026	2026, most recent posted
MSK	February 6, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Harvard Project Success	February 4, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Ragon	February 15, 2026	2026, most recent posted
IU Future Scientist	February 28, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Johns Hopkins SARE	March 1, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Fred Hutch	March 13, 2026	2026, most recent posted
UAB PRISM	January 19, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Children’s Hospital Colorado	February 1, 2026	2026, most recent posted
Cleveland Clinic	January 31, 2026	2026, most recent posted
University of Kentucky	April 5, 2026	2026, most recent posted

If a program shows a 2026 date, expect the 2027 deadline to land around the same time. Check the official page in the fall.

Resources

Find a research question

• Medical research topics for high school students
• 15 disease research project ideas
• 200 STEM research topics
• 8 tips on how to do biology research in high school

More research programs

• Biology research programs for high school students
• Genetics research programs
• Computational biology summer programs
• Biotech research summer programs
• 35 summer research programs
• 15 best STEM summer research programs
• The most competitive research programs
• Prestigious summer research programs with low acceptance rates

Medical programs by state

• Medical summer research programs in Texas
• Medical programs in California
• Medical summer programs in Boston
• Medical summer programs in Florida

Funding and mentorship

• Free medical programs
• Free online research programs
• 20 summer research mentorship programs

Writing up your research

• Key components of a high school research paper
• How long it takes to write a research paper
• What you can do with a high school research paper
• Research paper programs

Image source: University of Pennsylvania