A Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Development Biology

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This award provides funds to the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University to continue a successful REU Site. Each summer, about 36 undergraduates from diverse collegiate and ethnic backgrounds will spend 10 weeks engaged in developmental biology research at the University. Mentors will be selected by the students from about 40 faculty members who have active, well-funded research groups and who study developmental mechanisms in a wide range of experimental systems. The emphasis will be on getting each student actively engaged in increasingly independent research in one of these productive research groups. However, to permit students to view their own research in a broader context, the program will provide five types of supplemental activities: (i) workshops dealing with important model organisms, methods and paradigms in contemporary developmental biology research, (ii) faculty seminars designed specifically for the students, (iii) participation in the existing Developmental Biology Journal Club, (iv) a parallel journal club run by and for the students themselves and (v) an end-of-summer research retreat at which all students will present papers summarizing their research accomplishments. Opportunities for frequent peer-group social interactions will also be provided.