University of Minnesota Summer Research in Neuroscience

描述（由申请人提供）：神经系统疾病在我们的社会中变得越来越普遍，特别是考虑到随着人口老龄化，患有神经系统疾病的人数越来越多。为了应对开发新的有效疗法来治疗这些疾病的挑战，我们需要不断激励聪明和有才华的本科生进入神经科学研究的职业生涯。这种需求在目前神经科学研究领域代表性不足的学生群体中尤为迫切。发表的分析表明，让学生在大学生涯的早期就意识到研究领域，特别是让他们直接参与研究过程，是培养学生对研究的兴趣作为未来职业的一种非常有效的方式。25年来，明尼苏达大学通过提供生物医学科学的夏季住宅研究计划，认识到并迎接了这一挑战。这项提案是为了资助这些暑期项目的神经科学部分，我们将在其中培训8名完成大学一年级或二年级学业的本科生。我们将在全国范围内招收学生，重点是神经科学研究专业中代表性不足的群体的学生。我们将为他们提供为期10周的密集研究体验，其中包括专业指导（学术生存技能和研究生院的准备）以及研究伦理研讨会。我们的目标是激励新一代的神经科学研究人员，以及创建一个国家指导池谁将接受未来几代学生的责任。反过来，我们希望这些人成为致力于解决神经系统功能障碍医疗问题的研究基础设施的一部分。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Disorders of the nervous system are becoming more prevalent in our society, especially considering the growing number of people with neurological disorders as our population ages. To meet the challenge of developing new and effective therapies to treat these disorders, we need to consistently inspire intelligent and talented undergraduate students to enter careers in neuroscience research. This need is particularly acute among populations of students who are currently underrepresented in the field of neuroscience research. Published analyses have made it clear that making students aware of research fields early in their college careers, especially by involving them directly in the research process, is an extremely effective way of developing a student's interest in research as a future profession. For over 25 years, the University of Minnesota has recognized and met this challenge by offering summer residential research programs in biomedical sciences. This proposal is to fund a neuroscience component of these summer programs in which we will train 8 undergraduate students who have completed their freshman or sophomore years in college. We will recruit students nationally, focusing on students from groups that are underrepresented within the neuroscience research profession. We will provide them with a 10 week intensive research experience that will include professional mentoring (academic survival skills and preparation for graduate school) as well as workshops on research ethics. Our goals are to inspire a new generation of neuroscience researchers as well as to create a national mentoring pool who will accept that responsibility for future generations of students. In turn, we expect these individuals to become part of the research infrastructure dedicated to solving medical problems of nervous system dysfunction.