USC undergraduate students attend a monthly GGURE meeting during the academic year.

Genomics and Geobiology Undergraduate Research Experience (GGURE)

Applications are now closed for Spring 2022. This will likely be the last semester that GGURE is offered.


The Genomics and Geobiology Undergraduate Research Experience (GGURE) is a research internship program for USC sophomores, juniors, and seniors majoring in the life sciences, earth and marine sciences, computational sciences, and engineering. There is both a part-time program during the academic year and a full-time program over 10 weeks during the summer break at the University of Southern California. The GGURE program offers USC undergraduates the opportunity to participate actively in a research group, with either an experimental or computational focus, and perform original research under the direct supervision of a faculty mentor.

GGURE was originally funded by the National Institutes of Health and was called the Genomics Research Experience for Undergraduates (GREU) program. It was a program of the Center for Excellence in Genome Science (CEGS) and focused on students from underrepresented backgrounds. It is currently funded by C-DEBI, a National Science Foundation funded Science and Technology Center, with assistance from USC’s Office of the Provost.

GGURE Program & Format

Read the USC News feature article about GGURE  which includes student testimonials!

  • With the guidance of the program managers, USC undergraduate students find a mentor and lab at USC in which they would like to conduct research.
  • GGURE meetings occur about once per month during the academic year and once per week during the 10-week summer program. Topics include: how to create and give research presentations, curriculum vitae vs. resume, graduate and professional program application preparation, interview strategies, and more. Meetings sometimes include guest speakers and science journal club.
  • We periodically survey students to ask demographic data, major, year, etc. for funder reporting purposes, and we will want to know what your academic/career path is like after you leave USC.
  • More details are available for students who are interested in participating. Please contact Gwen Noda (gnoda@usc.edu) or Dr. Steve Finkel (sfinkel@usc.edu) for more information.

GGURE Student Guidelines

  • USC allows students to work up to 20 hours per week on campus, but we ask that students work up to 14 hours per week as part of GGURE during the academic year and up to 35 hours per week in the summer. The exact number of hours that students work is determined by an agreement between the mentor and student.
  • Because of the pay rate, we hope that the GGURE research position can be a student’s only job on campus so that students can maintain their high academic achievement, but many students also work a few hours per week in another position.
  • Students are responsible for whether or not their research position will affect their financial aid.
  • Federal work study is NOT required to participate in the GGURE program, and we can work with you if you do have work study.

Student Resources

For USC Undergraduate Students

For All Undergraduates

Thinking About Graduate School?

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