Local high school students are wrapping up summer internships at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies this week. The decades-old program offers paid positions in the institute’s scientific laboratories.

Kelly Semtner is one of this year’s students. She first visited the institute with her biology class at High Tech High Mesa, where she graduated in June.

“I wanted to try molecular plant biology, because it gets you to know a lot more about plants and how they signal,” she said.

She spent eight weeks this summer doing just that in Lena Mueller’s lab. Mueller studies the symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants.

“Roots can take up nutrients from the soil,” Mueller said. “But they have a limited reach.”

Mueller said fungi inside the roots grow thread-like networks called myce

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