Biodefense & Infectious Diseases Short Term Training for Minority Students

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议在弗吉尼亚大学医学院继续现有的非常成功的暑期研究实习计划（SRIP）。该计划的目标是让不同群体的本科生和医科学生接触到最先进的生物防御和传染病研究，向他们灌输信心和将研究作为职业选择的愿望，并使他们熟悉生物医学研究领域存在的职业机会。这个为期十周的项目是多方面的，第一个也是最重要的方面是让学生在教师导师的指导下接触和参与一个当代研究项目。第二方面是让学生参加一系列每周的研讨会，让学生接触到他们在个别实验室不太可能看到的先进研究技术，包括共聚焦和电子显微镜的使用、生物信息学、基因组学和蛋白质组学、基因图谱技术等。第三个方面包括一系列的讲座和讨论，其中学生接触到广泛的研究课题和国际公认的科学家，包括女性和少数族裔科学家，他们可以作为这些学生的榜样。我们项目的最后一个方面是每周的研究午餐，由Petri博士和首席共同研究员Hockensmith博士共同主持，在此期间，学生们口头陈述他们的工作假设，总结过去一周的研究进展，讨论职业选择和机会，并考虑选择和申请研究生项目的方法。该计划的所有组成部分都有近30名对生物防御和传染病研究感兴趣的教师导师。在这项资助的最初几年中，我们接待了47名学员，其中51%是A、B或C类病原体项目，26%是先天或获得性免疫项目，23%是基础科学项目。此外，45%获得本科学位的参与者继续攻读博士和医学博士/博士研究生课程。我们认为我们的计划提供了一个优秀的环境，以激发和培养对生物医学研究的研究事业的兴趣。参与者对课程的评论非常出色，并对我们课程的持续兴趣做出了重大贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to continue an existing and highly successful Summer Research Internship Program (SRIP) at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine. The goals of this program will be to expose a diverse group of undergraduate students and medical students to state of the art biodefense and infectious diseases research, to instill in them confidence and a desire to consider research as a career option, and to familiarize them with the opportunities that exist for a career in biomedical research. The ten week program is multi-faceted, with the first and most important facet involving student exposure to and participation in a contemporary research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. A second facet has the students participating in a series of weekly workshops in which students are exposed to advanced research techniques that they are unlikely to see in individual laboratories, including the use of confocal and electron microscopy, bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, genetic mapping techniques, etc. The third facet includes a series of lectures and discussions wherein the students are exposed to a wide array of research topics and internationally-recognized scientists, including women and underrepresented minority scientists who can serve as role models for these students. A final facet of our program is a weekly research lunch, co-hosted by the Dr. Petri and the lead co-investigator Dr. Hockensmith, during which the students give oral statements of their working hypotheses, summaries of the past week's research progress, discuss career options and opportunities, and consider approaches for choosing and applying to a graduate program. All components of this program are in place using nearly thirty faculty mentors with research interests in biodefense and infectious diseases. During the initial years of this grant we have hosted 47 trainees with 51% having category A, B or C pathogen projects, 26% innate or acquired immunity projects and 23% basic science projects. Furthermore, 45% of participants who have obtained their undergraduate degree have gone on to PhD and MD/PhD graduate programs. We feel that our program provides an outstanding environment to stimulate and foster interest in research careers in biomedical research. Program reviews by participants have been outstanding and have contributed significantly to the continued interest in our program. RELEVANCE: The burden of infecious diseases is disproportionately borne by the disadvantaged, underrepresented and disabled of our society. We aim to Increase the opportunities for these individuals to pursue academic research with the hope that we can eventually Increase the overall diversity of our mature scientific work force and research enterprise.