For undergraduate science majors, the path to a career is often revealed not in a lecture hall, but at a lab bench. A new gift to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) will ensure that more University of Michigan students can follow that path as far as it leads.
Jean Liu (B.S. 1988) and Jonathan Heuer (B.S. 1989) established the Liu and Heuer MCDB Internship Fund to make it easier for undergraduate students to investigate science majors and careers. In part, the Liu and Heuer Fund will provide financial support to help students participating in MCDB’s summer Horizons Research Internship Program extend their internships into the academic year.
An Opportunity Built on Access
Launched in 2021, the Horizons Program is dedicated to expanding opportunities for students who might not otherwise explore research, especially first-gen and students with financial need, by providing a stipend to support a summer research experience. Horizons was born from a simple yet powerful observation: despite its importance, access to undergraduate research had long been a privilege reserved for students who could afford to volunteer their summer in an unpaid internship.
Early research experiences can be transformative for undergraduates. They help students discover scientific fields of interest and determine whether research is something they want to pursue by providing a realistic understanding of lab work and research as a career. They’re also a valuable credential when applying to competitive graduate programs and medical school.
Horizons also supports interns through weekly peer and mentor meetings, resume workshops, professional development sessions, and a final capstone event where students present posters about their work.
When he started college as a first-generation student, MCDB Chair Kenneth Cadigan says, “I didn’t even know what research was.” A poster advertising a $500 stipend for a summer research internship changed the trajectory of his life. “I found my calling. That undergraduate experience was at least equally as important as the classwork that I did. It’s such a different way of learning.”
Horizons was designed to offer the same kind of eye-opening opportunity to students who, as Cadigan puts it, “didn’t know this world existed.”
Even as Horizons has proven its value, Cadigan recognizes its limits. “Research takes time, because you don’t know what you’re doing at the beginning,” he continues. When students can continue working in the lab beyond their first summer in Horizons, they move from “trying research out” to thinking like scientists; they learn to navigate failure, troubleshoot complex experiments, and connect what they hear in lectures to real discoveries at the bench.
“Horizons gave me the confidence to see myself as a scientist.”
—Emily Estes
The Year That Made Research Real
While LSA junior Emily Estes’s Horizons internship revealed a love of research—and new career options—a sustained year of lab work has been transformative. A microbiology major and first-generation college student, Emily arrived at U-M as a transfer student with no prior lab experience.
“As a first-gen student, I found it difficult to navigate career exploration in the sciences when I first enrolled at Michigan,” she says. “I noticed that many of the people who benefit from Horizons come from backgrounds that tend to be underrepresented in science, and that was part of the reason that I was really drawn to the program.”
Horizons helped her match with Professor Györgyi Csankovszki’s developmental biology lab for a two-month summer internship in 2025. During the Horizons internship, Emily split her time between 25 hours a week at the bench and structured programming with her cohort. After the program ended, she spent another month working full-time for pay in the same lab, focusing solely on her project. That immersive stretch let her see all the sides of research, from the routine, day-to-day work of running experiments to the unexpected setbacks, long timelines, and small breakthroughs that keep a project moving.
“I love taking new students into the lab and watching them gradually appreciate what research is all about,” says Csankovszki, associate chair for graduate studies and chair of the graduate studies committee in the MCDB. Csankovszki has also served as the associate chair for undergraduate education; she’s mentored more than 40 undergraduates in her lab. “Some find out that it is not for them, and that’s great. They learned a valuable lesson. But when a student finds their new passion, it’s especially rewarding.”
“I didn’t really know until I transferred to Michigan that research could be a feasible career. The professional, social, and financial support I received through Horizons allowed me to fully immerse myself in my first research experience and shaped the way that I view science,” says Estes, who is preparing to do her honors thesis in Csankovszki’s lab next year, and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology or molecular biology. “Horizons gave me the confidence to see myself as a scientist.”
Estes also learned that research, as Cadigan pointed out, can be a very long process. “My project has had a lot more ups and downs than I think any of us were expecting. During my Horizons internship, we were working on verifying a specific strain of the organisms that we work with, and it proved to be a lot more challenging than we were expecting,” she says of her work with CEC-4, a nuclear tethering protein in C. elegans, with implications for understanding disorders like progeria, a genetic condition that causes rapid premature aging in children. “That was a really valuable experience for me to have.”
Estes has been able to continue working in the lab over the past academic year, thanks to a combination of paid support from the lab and MCDB courses that offer credit for research. “Being in the lab long term and not having to leave mid-project has been really rewarding,” she says.
“It was clear from the start that Emily was meant to be a scientist. As a Horizons intern, she quickly learned basic laboratory skills and how to interpret data and understand its limitations. But there are many techniques to learn and many ways of answering scientific questions—and to master them all takes time,” adds Csankovszki. “The additional time Emily spent in the lab over the past year has been incredibly valuable. It allowed her to grow into an independent scientist with the skillset of a graduate student. If a career in scientific research is her calling, she is ready.”
The Liu and Heuer MCDB Internship Fund is designed to address the gap Cadigan has long seen between what Horizons makes possible in the short term and the additional time in a lab that undergrads need to become more proficient in research.
“Students like Emily illustrate the power of Jean and Jonathan’s gift. If a student is working a part-time job alongside their coursework, the choice to spend additional hours in a lab without pay is not really a choice at all,” he says. “By funding paid, long-term research opportunities for undergraduates, it allows first-generation and students with need not just to try research, but to stay in the lab long enough for it to shape their futures,” he says.
“Being in the lab long term and not having to leave mid-project has been really rewarding.”
—Emily Estes
Curiosity Without the Cost
Jonathan Heuer and Jean Liu met as undergraduate biology majors at the University of Michigan. That education shaped how they think about the world—anchoring them in critical thinking and evidence-based decision making that later informed their careers.
“The foundation of my science education at Michigan and the skills students are building in the labs, especially using the scientific method and the habit of testing hypotheses and matching facts to frameworks, turned out to be something I used every day,” says Liu, who earned a master’s in biology from Stanford and a law degree from Columbia University, then went on to lead legal, compliance, and business development teams at biopharmaceutical and biotech companies in San Diego and Seattle.
“Science is a universal language. Having an orientation towards the world that is somewhat experimental, that questions, ‘How can I test my assumptions?’ is so valuable across every human experience, every human endeavor,” adds Heuer, an entrepreneur and passionate community philanthropy leader in Seattle, who did postgraduate studies in developmental biology at Stanford. “We’ve benefited a tremendous amount from Michigan, from our studies in biological sciences in LSA, and we want to continue it. We want others to have access to Michigan’s top-ranked education. We want to make sure they’re not shut out of opportunities because of finances.”
Interested in exploring how they could give back to Michigan and support MCDB in particular, they visited campus on a crisp Midwestern autumn day. As Cadigan gave them a tour of the department, the Horizons interns they met stood out.
“Getting the opportunity to meet the students and professors in MCDB and hear about their work reinforced that Michigan’s science and research are exceptional—and Horizons ensures undergraduates from all backgrounds can be a real part of it,” says Heuer. “We were inspired to help keep that pathway open, allowing students to be curious and spend time in the lab instead of worrying about how they’re going to pay the rent.”
“Undergrad is when young people should be able to explore without worrying about the implications for their careers and earning potential,” adds Liu. “For first-generation students, particularly, who otherwise wouldn’t have that freedom, this opportunity is so key.”
Their gift will support one or two Horizons students each year in continuing their lab research during the academic year—providing the financial relief that makes the kind of sustained experience Emily Estes is having possible, and with it, the chance for the kind of growth that one summer simply cannot deliver.
“Research is like trying on a coat,” Cadigan says. “And sometimes it fits.” With this new scholarship, a few more students each year will get the chance to find out.
The Horizons Effect
MDCB's Horizons undergraduate internships can illuminate a path to a career in academic research. Read about two Horizons alums who are pursuing graduate studies related to their Horizons research experiences.
Life-Changing Education in LSA
In the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, life-changing education in the liberal arts and sciences extends beyond the classroom. Hands-on scientific research internships help undergraduates gain the skills, confidence, and time in the lab to discover new interests, think like scientists, and prepare for careers they may never have imagined possible.
Look to Michigan for the foundational knowledge and experience to ignite purposeful change.
LSA is the place where creative thinkers engage with a complex, diverse, and changing world. See how your support can make an impact on what’s next, for a better tomorrow. Learn more.
