From July through August 2025, the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) at Helmholtz Munich hosted six exceptional international students as part of our annual Summer Internship Program (SIP).
This highly competitive program offers Bachelor’s and early Master’s students a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in academic diabetes research. Interns were integrated into active lab teams and worked on real scientific projects while participating in the HDC’s vibrant academic environment.
This year’s participants were placed across three research institutes: four interns joined labs at the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC), one intern at the Institute of Experimental Genetics (IEG), and one at Adipocytes and Metabolism (ADM).
The program kicked off with a Welcome Day featuring a scavenger hunt and introductory talks. Interns also attended weekly HDC seminars on current topics in diabetes research and engaged closely with peers, doctoral researchers, and lab supervisors.
The program concluded with a closing event, where each intern presented their research findings to to the HDC audience, including supervisors, mentors, and fellow interns. We extend our sincere thanks to all supervising scientists and lab advisors at IDC, IEG, and ADM for their guidance and support throughout the internship.
We warmly congratulate all six interns on their achievements—and perhaps we’ll have the pleasure of welcoming one or two of them back in the future!