Students Training in Advanced Research

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Project Summary/Abstract. This is a competing renewal application of the highly successful UC Davis T35 STAR (Students Training in Advanced Research). The program has trained 225 DVM students over the last 20 years. Students are encouraged and mentored to submit hypothesis-driven research proposals during their first, second, and occasionally third year of the professional curriculum. The objective of the STAR program is to provide DVM students, whose application is approved by the review committee, stipend support to join experienced training faculty members and their productive research teams in 10 weeks of structured research mentoring and hands-on modern biomedical research. The program emphasizes 5 fundamental research objectives: 1) how to gain knowledge and understanding o f one’s field of science; 2 ) h o w t o formulate a scientifically sound and testable hypothesis; 3) identify specific objectives, conduct controlled methodical experiments, and develop technical expertise; 4) analyze results, derive conclusions, propose additional experiments, and anticipate new directions; and 5) convey research findings succinctly and convincingly to others. Responsible conduct of research and scientific rigor are key components of the training plan. STAR program has consistently received 55 to 63 applicants annually, and in 2015 expanded to 15 positions supported by the NIH T35 mechanism to meet growing demand from students with interest in participating in NIH-relevant research. Students with broad interests ranging from molecular and cellular medicine, to biomedical engineering, to vector borne diseases, to epidemiology will be trained. The program maintains 57 faculty trainers with proven successes in undergraduate, predoctoral and postdoctoral training. Thus, students have access to research projects conducted not only on a variety of lab animal species (C. elegans, zebrafish, rodents, non-human primate), but also clinical research on companion and food animals. Increasingly students express interest in transdisciplinary “One Health” research experiences with hypotheses targeting complex questions about disease emergence and transmission at the interface of animals, humans and their environment. Accordingly, we have dynamically expanded our training faculty to meet student interests. The greatest strengths of our short-term training program include the outstanding quality and motivation of our DVM students, the strong highly collaborative multidisciplinary nature of our research programs, and student access to translational research projects that use innovative approaches. Trainees will have access to advanced technologies, such as epi/genomics and metabolomics, proteomics, state-of-the-art imaging, BSL3 labs, genetically modified organisms, and gnotobiotic and inhalation facilities. This five-year competitive renewal application requests to maintain support for a total of 15 DVM students per year for each of five years (a total of 75 students), in order to maintain T35 program missions; spark the interest of the next generation of DVM clinician-scientists that will take leadership positions in academia, government, and the private sector.