Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research in Nephrology & Urology

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Abstract: Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research in Nephrology & Urology The Mayo Clinic has a rich history in both basic science and clinic science research in Nephrology & Urology, and has active PhD, MD and MD-PhD training programs. Annually, the Mayo Graduate School receives >1000 applications from Undergraduates to work with Mayo Clinic Investigators. The Mayo Clinic is home to both an O'Brien Urology Research Center as well as a Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center. Both Mayo Centers are one of four NIH funded Centers in the US. For the past several years, both Centers have received supplemental funds to support summer undergraduate research related to kidney stones and PKD, respectively. This proposal, in response to RFA-DK-13-005 (R25) merges these two successful summer undergraduate programs into a more generalized Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research in Nephrology & Urology. Several students from Mayo's programs have entered PhD, MD, or MD- PhD programs, or have co-authored Nephrology or Urology-oriented peer-reviewed papers. Over the next 5 years, we proposed to fund 14 students/summer (70 students total) to work specifically with Mayo Investigators engaged in basic or translational research in Nephrology & Urology. This 5 year period will allow undergraduates in the program to perform innovative Nephrology & Urology research with leading Mayo Clinic research laboratories. Students will also participate in various educational programs (e.g., weekly seminars and mini-courses) to enhance their research experience. Their 10-week summer experience will culminate with (1) a 10-minute oral presentation of their work, (2) a Mayo-wide Summer Undergraduate poster presentation (> 120 student/yr) and (3) a NIDDK Summer Research Poster Symposium to be held annually in Bethesda, MD. Following the Summer Program, students will be academically tracked to determine the effectiveness of the Mayo Summer Undergraduate Research experience in Nephrology & Urology. Our goal is to increase the number of basic and clinical Nephrology & Urology researchers as a result of this training experience.