REU Site: Engineering Medical Advances at the Interface of Experiments and Computation

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This three-year REU Site, "Engineering Medical Advances at the Interface of Experiments and Computation", at the University of South Carolina at Columbia (USC) provides a ten-week summer research experience for ten undergraduate student participants. Students will be recruited nationally and selected on the basis of their academic performance, potential and enthusiasm for conducting research, and future plans for a research career. Recruiting targets primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) at which students might not otherwise gain access to research opportunities as well as institutions with a high proportion of minority students. Research at the interface of experiments and computation will stimulate future strategies to increase the length and quality of life through preventive healthcare, early diagnostics, and therapeutics. The proposed REU site exposes young researchers, our future scientific leaders, to this interdisciplinary and collaborative research environment, which is needed to understand complex and intricate biological phenomena. In addition to research, participants will engage in enrichment activities that span science, professional development, and (bio)medical product protection/commercialization. Planned activities will broaden their exposure to experimental and computational research, with focus on strategic integration of these approaches to achieve a common goal. The REU Site leverages expertise of an interdisciplinary group of faculty working at the interface of experiments and computation to advance understanding of fundamental biological phenomena and biomedical technologies. The proposed research is derived from ongoing, federally funded projects as well as newly established collaborations involving junior faculty. Research efforts utilize tools and knowledge at the interface of engineering and medical advancement to gain insight into interactions among biological molecules, cells, and tissues as well as interactions between synthetic systems and biological structures. It is expected that student participants will develop valuable, lasting relationships with faculty and graduate student mentors as well as fellow researchers, which will provide resources and encouragement in their pursuit of a research career. Planned social activities will build a sense of community among mentors and participants and facilitate an informal sharing of research. During a concluding symposium, participants will formally share their research as both a poster and oral presentation. The symposium is designed to ensure that participants complete the program with the materials necessary to present their research at a national meeting, for which travel funds are made available. Together, these elements will ensure the success of an REU Site that provides mentorship, education opportunities, and a positive perception of research to undergraduate students within an interdisciplinary setting that emphasizes experimental-computational collaboration. The unique strengths of the proposed REU Site will inspire participants and enable success in their future research endeavors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.