AI in Genomics Internship

AI-Powered Clinical Variant Interpretation

Cambridge

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical business and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide! AstraZeneca Summer Internships introduce you to the world of ground-breaking drug development, embedding you in highly dedicated teams, committed to delivering life-changing medicines to patients. Our 10–12-week program is designed for undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. We offer exciting opportunities across Research & Development, Operations, and Enabling Units (Corporate functions).

Our internships immerse students in the pharmaceutical industry, allowing the opportunity to contribute to our diverse pipeline of medicines whether in the lab or outside of it. You will feel trusted and empowered to take on new challenges, but with all the help and guidance you need to succeed. This internship will help you develop essential skills, expand your knowledge, and build a network that will set you up for future success. You will be surrounded by curious, passionate, and open-minded professionals eager to learn and follow the science, fostering your growth in a truly collaborative and global team.

The intern will join the Centre for Genomics Research (CGR), which unifies AstraZeneca’s omics platforms under a single Omics and Data Science strategy and partners closely with Therapeutic Areas. CGR operates one of the world’s largest human genetics efforts, analyzing approximately 1.5 million genomes across diverse ancestries. This role sits within CGR’s Genomics Initiatives team - a multidisciplinary group of bioinformaticians, genome scientists, software engineers, translational scientists, statisticians, and disease-area specialists who collaborate to deliver inclusive and clinically actionable insights at scale.

Accountabilities

This internship will develop an AI guided, LLM based agent to interpret and prioritize clinical variants across diverse ancestries, evaluating its ability to classify pathogenic variants and interpret variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Leveraging gnomAD for ancestry stratified allele frequencies and ClinVar for clinical assertions, outputs will be aligned to ACMG/AMP guidelines. The work addresses bias in existing databases by surfacing plausible pathogenic variants in under represented populations, including South Asian ancestries. Deliverables include a reproducible evidence framework, pilot benchmarking of LLM performance on clinical variant classification and interpretation, and the identification of putative novel pathogenic variants, particularly from non European ancestries.

Essential Criteria

Currently undertaking a MSc (or integrated master’s) in Life Science, Genomics, Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or a closely related discipline.

Strong computational expertise with proficiency in Python (Pandas/NumPy); a good understanding of large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI; robust data wrangling skills; and reproducible analysis practices; familiarity with human genetic data (including clinical variation) and public resources such as gnomAD, ClinVar, dbSNP, and OMIM; and Clear scientific communication skills - concise documentation, visualization, and presentations tailored to multidisciplinary audiences.

Must be at least 18 years of age at time of application.

Must have UK right-to-work status.

Must return to schooling at program close (candidates graduating before/during the programmes are ineligible)

Desirable

AI agent development experience, including designing, evaluating, and deploying agentic AI workflows for genomics or data analysis.

Software engineering skills with GitHub, Microsoft Copilot, and Jupyter to enable collaborative, reproducible workflows.

Familiarity with variant consequence annotation and predictive features (e.g., VEP/ ANNOVAR) and understanding of ACMG/AMP clinical interpretation guidelines.

AstraZeneca is where you can immerse yourself in groundbreaking work with real patient impact.

Trusted to work on important projects, you’ll have the independence to take on new challenges while receiving all the guidance you need to succeed. Our collaborative environment is designed to help you grow professionally and personally, surrounded by passionate individuals eager to make a difference.

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca, starting with the recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics.

We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any reasonable adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.

Ready to make an impact? Apply now and join us on this exciting journey!

#Earlytalent

Date Posted

23-Jan-2026

Closing Date

06-Feb-2026

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.