Neuroscience Major Interns Alongside LVC Alumnus

Chris Mingus ’25 was working in the microbiology lab in the Neidig-Garber Science Center last spring when he met Lebanon Valley College alumnus Dr. Frank Rice ’69, an encounter that would lead to a meaningful career experience.

Mingus met Dr. Rice and his wife, Ruth Long Rice ’68, on the last Friday of the spring 2025 semester when they were driving through Annville on their way to their grandson’s baseball tournament and stopped by LVC’s campus. They were walking by the lab when they saw Mingus and went in to see what he was working on. He told the pair that he was a Neuroscience major, and Dr. Rice revealed that he was a Neuroscientist. This connection led to Dr. Rice offering him an internship at Integrated Tissue Dynamics (INTiDYN), a biomedical research firm in Rensselaer, N.Y., where Dr. Rice is Founder, President, and Chief Scientist. With over 100 publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, Dr. Rice is at the core of a vast network of international medical center research and pharmaceutical collaborations.

Mingus interned for INTiDYN this past summer, where he essentially served as a Junior Scientist under the mentorship of Dr. Rice, and boosted his scientific problem-solving, technical skills, and research analysis. Mingus assisted Dr. Rice with his research on chronic pain disorders such as fibromyalgia, chronic regional pain syndrome, diabetic neuropathy, and chemotherapy-induced neuropathy. This unique research pioneered the microscopic neurochemical analyses of tiny human skin biopsies to detect the cause and improve treatments for chronic pain.

“The amount of knowledge I gained from this experience cannot really be measured,” said Mingus, a competitor for LVC’s esports team and a former member of the men’s ice hockey and men’s golf teams. “However, I feel that I gained the most in my understanding of how science also works as a business. My time with INTiDYN was jam-packed with scientific reading and research, but all of that is for naught if you are unable to build connections in your field and collaborate toward common goals.”
Mingus said that this internship was the highlight of his time in college, and he recalled a specific instance that was particularly meaningful.

“I was working on the microscope, taking images of a skin biopsy, and was able to capture a spectacular image of a blood vessel and its structural components,” Mingus said. “This was a significant turning point during my time at the internship, as it was one of my first really important contributions to the work that Dr. Rice has been doing.”

Dr. Rice said he enjoyed working with an LVC student and was impressed by the knowledge Mingus brought into the internship.

“It was terrific,” Dr. Rice said. “He’s really at the level of a second-year graduate student. He picked up stuff well beyond the coursework and takes a lot of his own initiative.”

Mingus reconnected with Dr. Rice this fall and traveled to a meeting in New York City regarding a collaboration between INTiDYN, the Neuroscience Department of The University of Texas at Dallas, and the Hospital for Special Surgery to conduct research on complex regional pain syndrome.

As he approaches graduation in December, Mingus looks forward to pursuing graduate school next fall. In the interim, he will continue working part-time with Dr. Rice at INTiDYN as a Technician.

Other than knowing he wanted to enjoy his work and publish research in the neuroscience field, Mingus’ internship provided clarity about specific career goals that he will work toward during the remainder of his time at LVC.

“I have never felt more certain about going to graduate school and completing my Ph.D.,” Mingus said. “Going further than discovery research as a Ph.D. neuroscientist, I want to complete my M.D. and perform translational research. My ultimate goal is to be the foremost knowledge source of my field and to provide the most impact to the lives of the affected individuals that my research revolves around. Dr. Rice is a perfect example of a neuroscientist deeply respected in his field and regarded as a top expert in pain research. He has shown me the impact his work has made, and I aim to follow the same course.”