University of Minnesota Summer Research in Neuroscience

描述(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，特别是考虑到随着我们人口的老龄化，患有神经疾病的人越来越多。为了迎接开发治疗这些疾病的新的有效疗法的挑战，我们需要始终如一地激励聪明而有才华的本科生进入神经科学研究领域。这一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。已发表的分析表明，让学生在大学生涯早期就了解研究领域，特别是通过让他们直接参与研究过程，是培养学生将研究作为未来职业的兴趣的一种极其有效的方式。25年来，明尼苏达大学通过提供生物医学科学的夏季住宿研究项目，认识到并应对了这一挑战。这项提议是为了资助这些暑期项目中的神经科学部分，在这些项目中，我们将培训8名在大学完成大一或大二学业的本科生。我们将在全国范围内招生，重点招收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准备)以及关于研究道德的研讨会。我们的目标是激励新一代神经科学研究人员，并创建一个全国性的导师池，他们将为未来几代学生承担这一责任。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学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.