Choose Development! to broaden participation of underrepresented undergraduates in developmental biology research

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Unguez, G PROJECT ABSTRACT The Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) is diversifying the community of developmental biologists by supporting undergraduate students who are members of groups underrepresented in basic/biomedical developmental biology and related research fields. SDB is able to achieve this goal because of the Society’s unique infrastructure already in place by the Choose Development! (CD) Program (2013-present), which provides a research-intensive undergraduate training experience to undergraduate students at a lab of an established developmental biologist, a multi-level mentoring plan for each student, society-wide recognition and enculturation activities at national meetings and continued support in years after participation in the Choose Development! Program. Key outcomes of the introductory Choose Development! Program include: (1) Of a total of 33 undergraduate Fellows, 63% of Fellows that have graduated (27) have entered a graduate program in developmental biology or closely related field (including one MD/PhD), 11% have entered medical school, and 11% have taken gap years in preparation towards submitting a more competitive application to graduate schools while working in their previous mentors’ lab; (2) to date, a total of 10 publications have involved the research of CD Fellows, with 8 manuscripts having a Fellow as a co-author and 2 crediting Fellows in the acknowledgements; (3) increased awareness and appreciation across the entire SDB led to proactive actions aimed at diversifying committees, Board of Directors, increased representation from non-R1 institutions, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students on the Board and active searches of underrepresented speakers at annual meetings. These cumulative outcomes of the CD Program have provided these Fellows an atmosphere of inclusiveness within the entire SDB and has impacted their continuation in the field. Proposed educational and mentoring activities enhance the two-summer immersion requirement of each participant in the research laboratory of an established SDB member anywhere in the USA. Summer hands-on research experiences by trainees will take place in laboratories that study the development of multicellular organisms at the molecule, cell, tissue, organ and whole organism levels and cover topics ranging from stem cells and nuclear reprogramming to evolutionary developmental and systems biology, and from computational analysis to identify gene regulatory networks involved in morphogenesis and organogenesis to the etiology of disease - all topics of great relevance to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.