REU Site: Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering

从2014年到2024年，生物医学工程师的就业预计将增长20%以上，这对那些能够支持医疗保健中使用的新设备、系统和软件的设计、开发和生产的人产生了迫切的需求。生物医学科学和医学的进步将越来越依赖于应用严格和定量的基于工程的方法来表征和询问生物系统。这个位于弗吉尼亚大学的多尺度系统生物工程REU站点每年夏天将培训10名本科生参与最先进的系统生物工程研究。虽然多尺度系统生物工程REU网站向STEM领域的全国顶尖学生开放，但它将专门针对在系统生物工程领域研究机会有限的机构中主修STEM领域的有才华的UGs，重点是从代表性不足的群体中招募学生。这些REU学生的研究经验和指导将为他们在这个快速发展和开拓领域的工作做好准备，否则他们将无法在他们的家庭机构中获得这些工作。在完成项目后，教师导师将与参与者保持持续的关系，帮助提高学生留在STEM的可能性。总体目标是培养一支来自不同STEM背景的年轻科学家队伍，并为他们提供在令人兴奋的系统生物工程领域取得成功所需的技能、信心和指导。学生将与教师导师进行为期10周的研究项目，最终以论文和公开研讨会结束。学生将参与协作，动手和密切指导的项目在以下领域：1)分子途径和细胞建模和2)组织/器官/群体水平建模，这将使他们沉浸在实验和计算分析的结合中。学生将获得实践技能、知识、道德基础和沟通技巧，这些都是在高级研究生学习中取得成效和在现代生物技术行业成功就业所必需的。该项目还将为学生提供职业建议、研究伦理基础、科学交流培训，并在项目完成后提供持续的指导。

The employment of biomedical engineers is projected to grow more than 20% over the period from 2014-2024, creating a critical need for those who can support the design, development and production of new devices, systems, and software used in healthcare. Advances in the biomedical sciences and medicine will increasingly depend upon the application of rigorous and quantitative engineering-based approaches to characterize and interrogate biological systems. This REU Site in Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering at the University of Virginia will train ten undergraduate participants per summer in state-of-the-art systems bioengineering research. While open to a broad national pool of top students in STEM, the Multi-Scale Systems Bioengineering REU Site will specifically target talented UGs majoring in STEM fields at institutions with limited research opportunities in the field of systems bioengineering, with an emphasis on recruiting students from underrepresented groups. The research experience and mentorship these REU students will prepare them for work in this fast-growing and pioneering field that would otherwise be unavailable to them at their home institutions. Faculty mentors will maintain continuing relationships with the participants after completing the program, helping to improve the likelihood that the students will remain in STEM. The overarching goal is to train a diverse corps of young scientists from a variety of STEM backgrounds and provide them with the skills, confidence, and mentorship necessary for successful careers in the exciting area of systems bioengineering. Students will be matched with faculty mentors for a 10-week research project, culminating in a paper and public symposium. The students will participate in collaborative, hands-on, and closely mentored projects in the areas of: 1) Molecular Pathways and Cellular Modeling and 2) Tissue-/Organ-/Population-Level Modeling, which will immerse them in a combination of experimentation and computational analyses. Students will acquire the practical skills, knowledge, ethical grounding, and communication skills necessary to be productive in advanced graduate study and be successfully employed in the modern biotechnology industry. The program will also provide students with career advising, grounding in research ethics, training in scientific communication, and ongoing mentorship after completion of the program.