Pain and Neurodegenerative Undergraduate Research Experiences: Interacting with community partners to build specialized and enhanced neurologic disease programs for undergraduates.

项目摘要 在过去的十年中，由于国会预算削减，NIH用于生物医学研究的资金大幅减少 尽管公共卫生需求不断增长。除了这种减少对生产力的明显影响之外 研究实验室，这种资助环境可能会劝阻本科生追求职业生涯， 生物医学研究这种影响将特别有害于慢性疾病的研究和理解。 神经系统疾病，一个日益受到关注的领域。我们的目标是通过支持专门的 在疼痛和神经退行性疾病的暑期本科研究经验。这样做的理由 建议是，通过加强神经系统疾病的本科研究计划，我们可以开始， 建立一个熟练的研究人员的管道，以应对神经退行性疾病的发病率增加， 人口老龄化。该提案旨在发展和继续实施两项协同生物医学研究 程序.这些新项目，疼痛本科生研究经验（PURE）和 神经退行性本科研究经验（NURE），是跨学科和社区- 从事生物医学暑期本科生研究项目。PURE和NURE的目标 暑期课程是为了增加学生对疼痛的基本科学的理解和接触， 神经退行性疾病，重要的是，提供一个更完整和真实的经验，通过桥接基本的 科学研究，学生有机会与临床研究人员进行现场和场外互动。12个（每个 每年夏天，将招募一名正在成长的大学生及以上的学生参加为期10周的PURE或NURE课程 上网时段我们预计将招收来自各种本科专业的学生，包括生物，化学， 生物化学、物理治疗前、职业治疗前、药学前、神经科学、物理学、计算机 科学和生物医学工程。[We旨在通过招聘包括不同的学生群体 全国大型研究型大学，历史上的黑人学院和大学，西班牙裔服务 机构，并从低研究和主要是本科院校区域。

PROJECT SUMMARY In the last decade, due to Congressional budget cuts, NIH funding for biomedical research has plummeted despite a growing public health need. Beyond the obvious effect of this reduction on the productivity of research labs, this funding climate likely dissuades undergraduate students from pursuing careers in biomedical research. This effect will be particularly deleterious to the study and understanding of chronic neurologic disease, an area of growing concern. We aim to counteract this possibility by supporting specialized summer undergraduate research experiences in pain and neurodegenerative disease. The rationale for this proposal is that by strengthening undergraduate research programs in neurologic disease, we can begin to build a pipeline of skilled researchers to respond to increasing rates of neurodegenerative diseases as our population ages. This proposal aims to develop and continue to implement two synergistic biomedical research programs. These new programs, the Pain Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) and Neurodegenerative Undergraduate Research Experience (NURE), are cross-disciplinary and community- engaged biomedical summer undergraduate research programs. The objective of the PURE and NURE summer program is to increase student understanding of and exposure to the underlying science of pain and neurodegeneration, and importantly, to offer a more complete and authentic experience, by bridging basic science research with opportunities for students to interact on- and off-site with clinical researchers. 12 (six per program) rising sophomores and above will be recruited each summer for a 10-week long PURE or NURE session. We anticipate recruiting students from a variety of undergraduate majors including biology, chemistry, biochemistry, pre-physical therapy, pre-occupational therapy, pre-pharmacy, neuroscience, physics, computer science, and biomedical engineering. [We aim to include a diverse population of students by recruiting nationally from large research universities, historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and regionally from low research and primarily undergraduate institutions.]