Basic and Applied Summer Training in Alcohol Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Kentucky Summer Training in Alcohol Research (STAR) program provides 12 weeks of intensive, hands-on alcohol research for 11 outstanding undergraduate students. A broad range of research opportunities exist that are truly bench to bedside, because of the breadth of empirical approaches employed by our alcohol research faculty. Research topics available to the trainees range from the cell biology of alcohol neurodegeneration to applied survey research on the role that alcohol may have in moderating interpersonal domestic violence. This program will mesh well with the long-standing existing infrastructure of the Department of Pharmaceutical Science's summer undergraduate research program. Trainees will perform independent research under the supervision of alcohol research faculty, participate in weekly educational and professional development seminars and be trained in responsible conduct of research. Hard work, discovery and great science will culminate in a research presentation to faculty, laboratory personnel and peers at our annual Summer Alcohol Research Symposium. Aggressive advertising of the program through scientific organizations, networking websites, and directly to regional liberal arts colleges, undergraduate institutions, and especially those schools serving underrepresented groups in STEM fields will allow for the recruitment of a diverse pool of summer undergraduate trainees. In concert with the main goals of providing hands on experience in basic and applied alcohol research, we will be promoting the biomedical and behavioral sciences as career choices for these students. Evaluations of short-term and long-term successes of the STAR program on our primary objective of increasing the pool of diverse applicants to graduate programs and biomedical research careers will be conducted and followed throughout the years of the program.