UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State is sending two doctoral students to Hilden, Germany, for a seven-week industry internship at the headquarters of QIAGEN, a global leader in biotechnology for life sciences diagnostics, equipment and research.
This internship program was launched in early 2024 through a formal partnership agreement between QIAGEN and OHMC. This multi-layered partnership spans research, education and collaborative outreach projects.
“By focusing on the future with two leaders dedicated to the microbiome sciences, Penn State and QIAGEN are building the best industry-academia alliance for the microbiome sciences sector,” said Seth Bordenstein, director of the OHMC and professor of biology and entomology. “The next steps are now underway as our center’s top graduate students go wheels up this summer to Germany to interconnect, train and grow the partnership.”
The 2025 OHMC-QIAGEN internship selectees are Samantha Seibel, a doctoral student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences Graduate Program administered by the Huck Institutes, and Naomi Huntley, doctoral student in the Eberly College of Science's Department of Biology. They will spend the summer gaining hands-on experience in molecular diagnostics, testing and assays, as well as collaborating with industry experts and learning about the broader research and development (R&D) pipeline. Specifically, they will embed within the QIAGEN Microbiome Products R&D laboratory, gaining experience and skills that will prepare them to enter the microbiome sciences workforce.
“I’m excited to start my internship at QIAGEN and see how science is applied outside of academia. It’s a great opportunity to work on real-world problems, build professional experience and contribute to meaningful projects,” Huntley said.
Huntley’s research at Penn State explores causal relationships between genetic variation, microbiome traits and disease outcomes in corals. She is completing her doctorate in the lab of Emily Davenport, assistant professor of biology.
Seibel’s graduate research focuses on the development of workflows to capture bacterial resistomes, which are the collections of genes that enable antimicrobial resistance in a population of bacteria. She is also investigating the impacts of antibiotic usage on bovine pathogen virulence, as well as the connection between gut microbial dysbiosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Seibel is completing her doctorate in the lab of Erika Ganda, associate professor of food animal microbiomes.
A previous participant of the program, Ashley Ohstrom, a graduate student pursuing a dual title doctorate in both food sciences and microbiome sciences, recalled her experience working in QIAGEN’s R&D laboratory in 2024.
“Coming straight from undergraduate research into graduate school, I had never worked in industry before, so the QIAGEN internship was my first real look into that world,” Ohstrom said. “Being in a new country and unfamiliar work environment pushed me to step outside my comfort zone. I learned how to work with a new team, picked up new technical skills and got hands-on experience with how applied research works in industry. It was such a fun and meaningful experience — both professionally and personally — and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
The OHMC-QIAGEN internship program is an integral component of the industry collaboration as it addresses a critical gap in graduate-level professional development, namely providing experiential training at the interface of academic microbiome research and industry application, according to Bordenstein.
“While many graduate programs emphasize research and publication, few offer structured opportunities to gain hands-on experience in commercial science or product development pipelines,” Bordenstein said. “This internship opens new avenues for career exploration by exposing trainees to the translational potential of microbiome science. By bridging academic training with industry experience, the program equips participants with a broader skill set and a clearer understanding of diverse career trajectories in the microbiome field.”