Each summer, Signature Science, LLC welcomes at least one intern to assist with research in our Center for Advanced Genomics (CAG). The research and validations performed at the CAG are shared with the forensic community in the form of open-source software, accessible publications, and conference workshops and presentations, and support the development of new offerings for clients of our Forensic DNA practice. Our interns, and their hands-on laboratory work, play a vital role in this process.
Midway through their internship term, we sat down with our 2025 CAG Summer Interns, Maggie King and Veronica Poole, to hear about their experience so far and how it has affected their future career goals and interests.
Interviewer: Let’s start by getting a little bit of background on each of you – Who are you? Where are you from? Where did/do you study? The works!
Maggie: My name is Margaret King but I go by Maggie. I go to school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and I’m studying Forensic Science and Law. I’m currently in undergrad, but I’m in the 4 +1 program.
Veronica: Hi, I’m Veronica! I just graduated from Syracuse a few weeks ago. I’m going to be continuing my education there, getting my master’s. I’ll be getting that done in one year as opposed to the typical two-year track.
Interviewer: Congratulations! And what will you be getting your master’s in?
Veronica: I’ll be pursuing a master’s degree in forensic science with a concentration in biology.
Interviewer: What drew you to forensic science?
Maggie: So, what got me interested in forensic science was a mix of crime shows and wanting to help people.
Veronica: It’s funny, I have a similar story. I watched a lot of Scooby-Doo growing up and I think that that was kind of where my initial interest in doing something for the greater good came in and, you know, “catching the bad guys”, even though I knew I could never be police officer. But yeah, I’ve also always had an interest in DNA, especially since getting to college. DNA to me, is like a puzzle. I love doing puzzles, and with DNA every single electropherogram looks a little bit different so you kind of have to sit there and put together the pieces. So that’s what initially drew me to it. And then I had the opportunity at Syracuse to join a DNA forensic lab research group that is run there, and I’ve been that in that for the past four years. And I’ve really enjoyed it.
Interviewer: And when you were looking for internship opportunities aligned with those interests, what stood out to you about this one?
Maggie: This internship applied to my interests because Signature Science is obviously a big forensics company, but forensics is really broad and I find DNA particularly interesting, so I wanted to do a DNA based internship.
Veronica: Yeah, and there’s so much that goes on at Signature Science in all different realms, not only just in DNA research, but also in biosecurity research and I just saw there were a lot of things that go on here and options. So I thought, “This seems like a really great place to intern at.”
Interviewer: Oh interesting, so in your case, Veronica, you knew you liked forensic science, but you thought, “Hey, maybe this place will expand my knowledge of what career options there are for me going forward.”
Veronica: Yes, expand my options and at the very least expand my skill set.
Interviewer: Okay, now, walk me through a typical day.
Maggie: We’re both working on DNA-based research projects. So every day is a little different depending on what part of our project we’re at and what resources we have available. So the last couple days I’ve been in the lab doing a lot of quant using DNA concentrator – specifically the Vivacon® Concentrator. Veronica is working to support the lab’s validation of a method for MVAC filter extraction.
Veronica: Yeah, I think just to kind of add to that, in addition to the actual research work, something really cool about working in this laboratory has just been getting introductions to all the software that had an access barrier to them previously. It’s really nice because it obviously expands our skill set and what exactly we know about all these software programs. So that’s been interesting to just play around on them. I think one day just spent around 5 hours playing around on one of the programs, figuring out where everything was and getting a better handle on how to use it.
Maggie: Being able to get the hands-on experience with using the lab machinery and using the kits and learning the chemistry behind them and then getting hands-on with the software on the computer has been the perfect balance here.
Interviewer: Has anything you’ve done since joining us changed anything for you in terms of, maybe, a future specialization or a future direction for a career?
Maggie: I found that research was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. It’s a lot more exciting! I thought it was going to be a lot more paperwork, but you actually do spend a lot more time in the lab than I thought you would.
Veronica: Yeah, I definitely feel the same way. I have really enjoyed my internship thus far and it’s definitely put research back on my radar. Before this internship I was pretty set on becoming a DNA analyst, but this internship has put research back up there, even though I thought I would be tired of it after four years of undergrad research. It’s put a new light on it!
Interviewer: That’s so cool that you’re interested in the work you’re doing! What is it like on a person-to-person basis? What are the interactions like with your supervisors and other lab staff?
Veronica: Yeah, so we’re working in the CAG laboratory, which is the Center for Advanced Genomics. So, we do work a lot with our direct supervisor. We’ve gotten to know him very well, but we also have others on our team that we’ve been talking with. We’ve gotten to shadow a few different analysts lab quite a bit, and, through that, we’ve gotten to learn about things like Kintelligence, which is a kit that neither of us really knew a lot about before coming in here. It’s been a really nice mesh of both learning on my own and knowing that I have people that I can ask for help.
Maggie: Yeah, the environment’s great. Everyone’s always willing to answer questions.
Interviewer: I am so glad to hear you’re having such a good experience. What advice would you give to the next round of forensic science students looking for an internship?
Maggie: I would recommend listening to your advisors. My advisors were the ones who suggested this internship to me. They know things that you don’t, they have connections that you don’t, and they if you ask, they will help you find something.
Veronica: I would say that personally for me, the first thing I did was looked at the company’s website to see if I could see myself working at that company, and for me the reason that I really was drawn to Signature Science was their website. I looked on ‘About Us’ page and the very first thing that was listed there was community and how the office is involved in the neighboring community and that was a huge factor for me knowing that I could go somewhere where community was one of the first things listed on their website. And yeah, just look at a company’s website, to see if there are things like that listed in that you could see yourself working there.
Interviewer: And was there anything in the job description that tipped you off that this would be a hands-on experience that someone seeking an internship anywhere should look out for?
Veronica: Yeah, I think that for Signature Science specifically, the job posting required experience with X equipment, Y software. And I was like, well, I kind of already have experience with that equipment, software. So I feel like I would be a good fit there.
Some postings you’ll see are just kind of are like, “If you’re interested in DNA, apply!” And it’s like, OK, but what would I really be doing there? So, definitely look for keywords such as instrumentation what the prior experience that they’re looking for is, because that could tell you whether it’s going to be be more of a hands-on internship versus more of a ‘sitting at the desk, doing paperwork’ internship.
Interviewer: Thank you both so much for sitting down and talking to me. It has been so interesting to hear from you while you’re in the thick of things! I really appreciate your time, thank you.
