10 Online Biotech Programs for High School Students
Biotechnology is at the forefront of addressing some of the world’s most critical challenges, from developing life-saving treatments to tackling food security and climate change. For high school students, exploring this dynamic field through specialized programs provides an opportunity to gain hands-on experience, deepen your understanding, and build a strong foundation for future academic and career pursuits.
These programs go beyond the classroom, offering real-world applications in biotech and related fields like medicine and technology. They also help you stand out on college applications, as admissions committees value students who take the initiative to pursue their interests and engage with advanced, specialized opportunities.
To help you get started, we’ve curated a list of 10 online biotech programs for high school students. These programs are a great way to explore the field, build practical skills, and discover the exciting possibilities within biotechnology.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $850 + $40 application fee
Application Deadline: February 28, 2025
Dates: June 16 - 27, 2025
Eligibility: Students entering grades 9-12 in Fall 2025, ages 14 and above by the start of the program
Stanford’s AIMI Summer Research Internship is an intensive two-week virtual program exploring the intersection of Machine Learning (ML) and healthcare. The program provides an interactive and hands-on experience, combining lectures on AI healthcare fundamentals with mentoring activities, group research projects, and social engagements.
The program also features virtual career lunch talks with guest speakers from academia, industry, nonprofits, and government sectors, offering a comprehensive view of the AI landscape in healthcare. Key topics covered in the program include foundational concepts and principles of Machine Learning as applied to healthcare, as well as methods for evaluating and assessing ML models in this field. Students will also explore the unique strategies and challenges involved in applying Machine Learning to real-world healthcare problems, including data privacy, ethics, and scalability.
As several lectures in the program are based on concepts in mathematics and computer programming, participants are required to have a strong foundation in these fields.
2. Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
Location: Virtual
Cost: $3,050
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in March.
Dates:
Session One: June 16 - June 27, 2025
Session Two: July 7 - July 18, 2025
Eligibility: Students in grades 8-11
Stanford’s Pre-College Summer Institute is an engaging virtual program tailored for high school students who are eager to dive into challenging, academically rigorous courses. This program offers students a unique opportunity to explore advanced topics in great detail, fostering not only a deeper understanding of various subjects but also enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
The Surgical Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship course in this program immerses students in medical innovation, blending clinical medicine, engineering design, and business principles. Taught by Stanford faculty and Silicon Valley Medtech experts, it features real-world case studies and guidance from industry leaders. You will also explore cutting-edge surgical technology. The course culminates in a “shark tank” style project to pitch your innovations.
3. Biotech Research Remote Program at the Boston Leadership Institute
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,200
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions
Dates: June 30 - July 11, 2025
Eligibility: Students in grades 8-12
Boston Leadership Institute’s Biotech Research program is a remote program that allows students to participate in live classes that offer hands-on experience and learning. Laboratory kits essential for practical learning are shipped to all remote students across the globe.
Over the course of this program, you will learn about a variety of topics like micropipetting, big pharma, and investing. These topics introduce you to essential practical skills required in Biotechnology and related fields and give you an understanding of the Pharmaceutical industry. You also get to engage in activities like the Bacterial Transformation Lab, Simulation Antibody Test, and take up an individual genetic disease research program, wherein you’ll choose your area of interest and complete a deep-dive research project to present to your fellow students during a ceremony at the end of the program.
4. University of Washington’s Young Scholars Program-REACH
Location: Virtual or in-person at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Cost: $500 for the in-person program; $100 for the virtual program.
Application Deadline: Applications will open in early 2025
Dates: Dates for 2025 are TBD.
Eligibility: High school students (Graduating seniors can also apply)
The Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) at the University of Washington offers a 5-day YSP-REACH summer program on its Seattle campus. Designed for high school students, this program introduces you to the fields of neuroscience and neural engineering. Participants get to explore topics such as neuroethics, scientific communication, and cutting-edge advancements in brain-computer interfaces.
A highlight of the program is the opportunity to tour CNT partner labs in departments like Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, providing a firsthand look at groundbreaking research. With a focus on preparing students for college-level STEM studies and careers, YSP-REACH is a great option if you’re interested in neural engineering, neuroscience, and STEM.
5. Computational Biology (CB) Virtual Camps by miRcore
Location: Virtual
Cost: $680 + $50 application fee
Application Deadline: Dates for 2025 are TBA
Dates: (Tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Session 1 (University of Michigan): June 17 – June 21, 2025
Session 2 (University of Michigan): June 24 – June 28, 2025
Session 3 (Scripps Research Institute): July 22 – July 26, 2025
Eligibility: Current high school and incoming 9th-graders
The Computational Biology In-Person Camp by miRcore is designed for students passionate about math, science, medicine, and computation. This camp delves into how the genome and transcriptome influence diseases and symptoms, allowing students to perform hands-on research in computational biology. Students who have not studied first-year high school biology must review transcription and translation processes beforehand using the provided materials.
Participants use patient RNA expression data to identify biomarkers related to specific diseases. On the first day, small groups select a disease to focus on and explore novel diagnostics or treatment options using cutting-edge research tools. The program focuses on analyzing gene expression, identifying pathways, and developing hypotheses based on real-world datasets.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $3,218 - $6,238, depending on the duration of the program.
Application Deadline: May 9, 2025
Dates: Multiple sessions from June 16 – July 25, 2025
Eligibility: Students completing grades 9 to 12, ages 14 to 18 by June 15, 2025
Brown University’s Summer@Brown online program offers high school students a diverse selection of over 50 courses, each designed to deliver a rigorous and stimulating learning experience. The program allows students to choose from three flexible study formats: asynchronous, mostly asynchronous, or blended, catering to a variety of learning preferences and schedules.
Throughout the program, participants engage in independent research, delve into college-level coursework, and develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Upon successful completion, students receive a Digital Certificate of Completion, showcasing their achievement. The program offers a variety of courses in Biotechnology, including Antibiotic Drug Discovery: Identifying Novel Soil Microbes to Combat Resistance, Cancer Biology: Discovering Molecular Mechanisms & Novel Therapeutic Strategies, and Laboratory Research in Biomedicine. A detailed list of the courses offered in this discipline can be found here.
7. Biotechnology Sequencing (BTS) Camp at miRcore
Location: Virtual or in-person at Scripps Research Institute Campus, La Jolla, CA
Cost: $770 + $50 application fee
Application Deadline: Dates for 2025 are TBA
Dates: July 29 – August 2, 2025 (Tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: Current high school students
The Biotechnology Sequencing Camp at miRcore equips high school students with the skills to analyze next-generation sequencing (NGS) data using the Linux operating system and command-line tools. This computational-centric program helps you improve your understanding of sequencing research — a skillset highly valued in biomedical labs.
Through hands-on experience, you learn Unix commands, analyze sequencing data to identify viruses like COVID-19, and explore NGS technology and its role in biotechnology. You also get to work on real research projects. The program also emphasizes thermodynamics, nucleotide hybridization, and the emerging era of medical genomics. With access to the University of Michigan’s high-performance Great Lakes Slurm cluster, participants gain exposure to career opportunities in biomedicine and computational genomics.
8. R Programming & Machine Learning Camp at miRcore
Location: Virtual
Cost: $680 + $50 application fee
Application Deadline: Dates for 2025 are TBA
Dates: July 8 – July 12, 2025 (Tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: Current high school and exceptional 8th-grade students
The R Programming & Machine Learning Camp introduces high school students to R programming and its application in biomedical research. Participants will analyze microRNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify cancer biomarkers and categorize cancer samples, combining statistical methods with real-world disease research.
This camp builds programming skills from scratch, making it accessible to students with or without prior experience. You will explore TCGA big data, utilize R’s machine learning tools, and create professional scientific graphics for presentations and science fairs.
9. Stanford SHTEM Summer Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: March 1, 2025 (Tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Dates: June 17 - August 9, 2025 (Tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: Current high school juniors or seniors, aged at least 14
The SHTEM internship at the Stanford Compression Forum introduces students to groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research. Participants collaborate on diverse, multifaceted projects that align with their interests while expanding their exposure to new fields. Guided by Stanford students, faculty, and staff, these projects bridge disciplines such as engineering, biology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, and design.
The program aims to immerse students in cutting-edge research and highlight the breadth of topics pursued in engineering. A past project from the program: Computational Drug Optimization: Using Machine Learning to Inhibit EZH2, focused on creating machine learning models for drug discovery, using bioactivity data to develop novel cancer therapies.
10. AIMI Summer Health AI Bootcamp at Stanford
Location: Virtual
Cost: $850 + $40 application fee
Application Deadline: February 28, 2025
Dates: June 16 - June 27, 2025
Eligibility: High school students entering grades 9-12 in Fall 2025, aged over 14 by the start of the program
Stanford’s AIMI Health AI Bootcamp is a virtual program designed for high school students of all technical levels to explore the intersection of machine learning and healthcare. In this two-week bootcamp, students explore cutting-edge topics such as the principles of ML, evaluation metrics, and challenges in healthcare-specific machine learning.
The curriculum includes foundation models, generative AI, and applications of algorithms for diagnostics and predictive modeling. The program features live lectures, group discussions, hands-on coding workshops, and career-oriented sessions with guest speakers from academia, industry, and government. Students work collaboratively to analyze healthcare datasets, gaining insights into how machine learning can transform patient care and medical research.
Bonus Programs
Veritas AI, founded and run by Harvard graduate students, offers programs tailored for high school students who are passionate about artificial intelligence. Students who are looking to get started with AI and Medicine would benefit from the Deep Dive: AI + Medicine program. Through this 10-session boot camp, students are introduced to the fundamentals of AI & medicine and get a chance to work on real-world projects. You can find examples of previous projects here.
Location: Virtual
Cost: 25 hours over 10 weeks (weekends)
Application Deadline: On a rolling basis. Winter cohort deadline - December 1, 2024
Dates: Varies according to cohort.
Eligibility: Ambitious high school students in grades 8-12 who have completed the AI Scholars program or have a background in coding.
Tyler Moulton is Head of Academics and Veritas AI Partnerships with 6 years of experience in education consulting, teaching, and astronomy research at Harvard and the University of Cambridge, where they developed a passion for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Tyler is passionate about connecting high-achieving students to advanced AI techniques and helping them build independent, real-world projects in the field of AI!
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