Interfacing computation and engineering with digestive and metabolic physiology

 描述(由申请者提供)：我们R25教育计划的总体长期目标是将计算和工程与消化和代谢生理学相结合，旨在吸引和鼓励工程、定量和计算学科的本科生考虑在消化健康和代谢及其相关疾病方面的职业。该项目由密歇根大学分子与综合生理学系赞助，包括21名导师。此次续签申请的重点是继续但扩大被称为STEP(短期教育计划)的年度暑期研究奖学金计划，从每个暑期8名学生增加到11名学生。在过去的四年里，我们评估了119份申请，从美国各地招收了32名不同的学生，其中6人是2年的研究员。为了最大限度地获得这种体验，如果可能，鼓励学生连续两个暑期入学。值得注意的是，参加了两个暑假的6名学生中，有5名至少与他们的研究导师一起发表了一篇论文；32名学生中有9名至少是一篇手稿的合著者；完成本科学位的研究员中有71%在研究生院或医学院就读，或在学术生物医学研究环境中担任技术职位。我们为期10周的全日制暑期研究经验包括中午系列讲座，讲授重要的生理学和研究相关原理，包括不同模式生物体的使用、实验室研究中的伦理和生物医学科学中的职业机会。研究经验在一个小型研讨会中达到高潮，由学生做口头报告，总结他们的研究项目。为了进一步增强我们的学生体验，我们正在将会议旅行奖励纳入计划，以促进暑期后的个性化导师与实习生关系；以及校友导师计划，将正在攻读高级学位的前计划研究员与积极录取的后续学生联系起来。教育计划将继续在一个高素质的咨询委员会的监督下进行，学生选择和进度监测将由学生选择和指导委员会完成。2012年NIH生物医学劳动力估计，定量和计算科学家在生物医学科学劳动力中所占比例不到2%。因此，定量科学家的培养对于生物医学科学的进步至关重要，特别是在包括复杂基因组学和蛋白质组学在内的大数据时代，以及多尺度生理系统。我们的项目为来自定量科学学科的本科生提供了进行实验室研究的绝佳机会。我们希望这一经历能激发学生的兴奋感，并推动他们从事以生物医学研究为导向的职业，特别是在NIDDK重点关注的消化健康、新陈代谢和相关疾病领域。鉴于我们在过去4年中取得的成就，以及我们计划实施的改进，我们预计能够为下一代高度有成就的生物医学学者做出贡献。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall long-term goal of our R25 Educational Program "Interfacing computation and engineering with digestive and metabolic physiology" is to attract and encourage undergraduate students who are majoring in engineering, quantitative and computational disciplines to consider careers in digestive health and metabolism and their related diseases. The program is sponsored by the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan and includes 21 mentors. The focus of this renewal application is to continue but expand the annual summer research fellowship program referred to as STEP (Short Term Educational Program) from 8 to 11 students per summer. During the past four years, we evaluated 119 applications and enrolled 32 different students from across the US, from whom 6 were fellows for 2 years. To maximize the experience, students are encouraged to enroll in two consecutive summers if possible. Notably, 5 of the 6 students who participated in two summers have published at least one paper with their research mentors; 9 of the 32 students are coauthors on at least one manuscript; and 71% of our fellows who have finished their undergraduate degree are attending graduate or medical schools, or hold technical positions in academic biomedical research settings. Our 10 week fulltime summer research experience incorporates a noon lecture series that teaches important physiology and research-related principles, including the use of different model organisms, ethics in laboratory research, and career opportunities in biomedical sciences. The research experience culminates in a mini-symposium, with oral presentations given by the students that summarize their research projects. To further enhance our students' experience, we are incorporating to the program conference travel awards to promote the personalized mentor-trainee relationship beyond the summer; and an alumni mentorship program to link former program fellows, who are pursuing advanced degrees, with actively enrolled STEP students. The Educational Program will continue to be under the oversight of a highly qualified Advisory Committee, and student selection and progress monitoring will be done by a Student Selection and Mentoring Committee. The 2012 NIH Biomedical Workforce estimates that quantitative and computational scientists make up less than 2% of the biomedical science workforce. Therefore, training of quantitative scientists is critical for the advancement of biomedical sciences, especially in the era of big data including complex genomics and proteomics, and multi-scale physiological systems. Our program provides excellent opportunities for undergraduate students from quantitative scientific disciplines to perform laboratory research. We expect this experience to instill excitement and to propel the students to pursue biomedical research- oriented careers, particularly in NIDDK-focused areas of digestive health, metabolism and related diseases. Given what we have accomplished during the past 4 years, and the improvements we propose to implement, we anticipate being able to contribute to the next generation of highly accomplished biomedical scholars.