Interfacing computational and engineering with digestive and metabolic physiology

摘要 该提案的目的是制定一项计划，以吸引主修工程，信息学和计算学科的本科生和研究生考虑消化疾病和代谢及其相关健康疾病领域的职业。该计划由密歇根大学医学院分子与综合生理学系赞助，包括两个部分。其中一个组成部分是开发和提供研究生课程，也可以作为高级本科课程提供，教授生理学，生物信息学，工程和计算机科学学生与NIDDK研究任务相关的计算应用，如糖尿病，肥胖症和胃肠道癌症。预计这门课程将吸引研究生，谁没有选择一个导师，追求与消化系统疾病和代谢的博士项目。学生将接触到17个拟议计划教师导师的研究计划。所有计划教师资助的研究人员进行消化系统疾病或代谢领域的研究，并在生理学的主要或联合任命，但也有与医学，儿科或外科预约。第二个组成部分是建立夏季研究奖学金，为工程和计算专业的学生提供机会，获得消化或代谢生理学研究领域的实验室经验。学生将参加中午系列讲座，向他们介绍生理学相关研究的多个方面，包括不同模式生物的使用，实验室研究中的伦理问题以及生物医学科学的职业机会。研究经验将在半天的研讨会中达到高潮，其中包括学生总结他们的研究项目的口头报告。计划监督将由一个高素质的内部咨询委员会提供，学生的选择和进度监测将由学生选择和指导委员会完成。为了最大限度地提高经验，将鼓励学生在可能的情况下连续两个夏天入学。预期成果包括：（i）工程学、信息学和计算科学的研究生将从事与NIDDK任务有关的研究，（ii）来自代表性不足的科学学科的本科生将在消化和代谢生理学领域进行实验室研究。我们希望这种经验，鼓励他们不仅追求研究事业，但也要考虑有关解决涉及消化系统疾病和代谢紊乱的健康问题的令人兴奋的机会。

Abstract The purpose of this proposal is develop a program to attract undergraduate and graduate students who are majoring in engineering, informatics and computational disciplines to consider careers in the areas of digestive disease and metabolism and their related health disorders. The program is sponsored by the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, and includes two components. One component is to develop and offer a graduate-level course, which may also be available as an upper-level undergraduate course, to teach physiology, bioinformatics, engineering and computer science students computational applications related to NIDDK research missions such diabetes, obesity and gastrointestinal cancers. It is anticipated that this course will attract graduate students, who have not selected a mentor, to pursue PhD projects related to digestive disease and metabolism. Students will be exposed to the research programs of 17 proposed Program Faculty mentors. All Program Faculty are funded investigators carrying out research in the areas of digestive disease or metabolism, and have primary or joint appointments in Physiology but also have appointments with Medicine, Pediatrics or Surgery. The second component is to establish summer research fellowships that provide opportunities for engineering and computational students to gain laboratory experience in the research areas of digestive or metabolic physiology. Students will attend a noon lecture series that introduces them to multiple aspects of physiology-related research including the use of different model organisms, ethical issues in laboratory research, and career opportunities in biomedical sciences. The research experience will culminate in a half-day symposium that includes oral presentations given by the students summarizing their research projects. Program oversight will be provided by a highly qualified Internal Advisory Committee, and student selection and progress-monitoring will be done by a Student Selection and Mentoring Committee. To maximize the experience, students will be encouraged to enroll in two consecutive summers when possible. Anticipated outcomes include: (i) graduate students from engineering, informatics, and computational sciences will pursue research related to the NIDDK-mission, and (ii) undergraduate students from underrepresented scientific disciplines will perform laboratory research in the areas of digestive and metabolic physiology. We expect this experience to encourage them not only to pursue a research career but to also to consider the exciting opportunities related to solving health problems involving digestive diseases and metabolic disorders.