Interfacing computational and engineering with digestive and metabolic physiology

摘要 这项建议的目的是开发一个计划，以吸引工程、信息学和计算学科专业的本科生和研究生考虑在消化疾病和新陈代谢及其相关健康障碍领域的职业。该项目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水平的课程，也可以作为高级本科课程，教授生理学、生物信息学、工程学和计算机科学专业的学生与NIDDK研究任务有关的计算应用，如糖尿病、肥胖症和胃肠道癌症。预计这门课程将吸引尚未选择导师的研究生攻读与消化系统疾病和新陈代谢相关的博士项目。学生将接触到17位拟议的项目教师导师的研究计划。所有方案教员都是在消化疾病或新陈代谢领域开展研究的研究人员，他们在生理学方面有初级或联合预约，但也有内科、儿科或外科的预约。第二个组成部分是设立暑期研究奖学金，为工程和计算专业的学生提供在消化或代谢生理学研究领域获得实验室经验的机会。学生将参加中午的系列讲座，向他们介绍与生理学相关的研究的多个方面，包括不同模型生物体的使用，实验室研究中的伦理问题，以及生物医学科学的职业机会。研究经验将在为期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。项目监督将由一个高度合格的内部咨询委员会提供，学生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体验，我们鼓励学生尽可能连续参加两个暑期班。预期结果包括：(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)未被充分代表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。我们期望这一经历不仅鼓励他们从事研究事业，而且鼓励他们考虑与解决涉及消化系统疾病和代谢紊乱的健康问题有关的令人兴奋的机会。

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.