The Case Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP)

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PROJECT SUMMARY This T35 competitive renewal application requests continued funding for the Case Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP). The overall goal of the program is to promote career development for physician scientists who will choose biomedical investigation as an essential component of their long-term professional development, with particular focus on the mission areas of the NIDDK and NIDDK-related research. These include: 1) Digestive Diseases, 2) Liver Diseases, 3) Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases, 4) Kidney Diseases, 5) GI Tumorigenesis, and 6) Inflammation/Infection. The program educates medical students using a mentor- based research approach over an 8-week training period between their 1st and 2nd years of medical school. The T35 program is based on strategic planning, consolidated efforts, and close academic integration of the CWRU School of Medicine (SoM), University Hospitals (UH) Cleveland Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, which provides a superb programmatic infrastructure. The faculty mentors from these institutions sustain a reputation of excellence based on superior clinical and basic research, ample funding from the NIDDK and NIDDK-related institutes ($39.8M annual direct costs from NIH; $15.1M from NIDDK alone), and combined research space in excess of 100,000 ft2. The Case MSSRP has an established track-record of selecting highly-qualified medical students through a formal application and evaluation process that identifies a research project and mentor from investigators working in a research area related to the NIDDK mission. Program evaluation and student progress is overseen by the T35 Executive and Internal Advisory Committees. Students submit a written abstract and present their findings during the Lepow Medical Student Research Day held in September. A unique aspect of the program is the multiple PI/PD approach, which allows research to span departmental boundaries and enlist preceptors with a tradition of highly-productive collaboration and who have trained a large number of young investigators in an interdisciplinary manner. The 50 mentors from 19 departments, representing a wide range of research expertise, offer a multiplicity of research opportunities that are tailored to the scientific interest of each trainee. Our innovative curriculum includes weekly group meetings, didactic lectures, and a three-day hands-on course held at the start of the 8-week research period. To assess the long-term impact of the program, we collaborate with the Medical Education and Alumni Affairs offices to track medical students up to 20 years after graduation. Based on the high number of applicants during the previous funding period, we are requesting to expand NIDDK support by an additional 5 students per year (15 total NIDDK-supported trainees). We have strong institutional support, documented by provision of space and resources, cost-sharing, as well as support from the CTSC and NIDDK-funded Cleveland DDRCC. Therefore, the academic environment continues to be ideal to sustain the overall objectives of this NIDDK-focused T35 medical student short-term training program.