Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences in Genomic Medicine (SURE-GM)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Genomic Medicine (SURE-GM) is intended to provide exposure to research in genomic medicine to rising juniors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Alabama. The program is a collaboration of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, AL. Students are recruited through mailings and, where possible, in-person visits by study staff to HBCUs in the state. The program is designed as a two-summer experience. The first summer is spent at HudsonAlpha with a combination of didactic and hands-on laboratory experiences intended to familiarize students with genetics and genomics as well as basic laboratory practices. This is important, since many students who enter the program have had little or no previous exposure to genetics, genomics, or to work in a laboratory. The second summer is spent at UAB, working in a research laboratory under the mentorship of a senior faculty member and associates in their lab. A number of career counseling seminars and events are provided as well. Students present a poster on their work at the end of the second summer at UAB. During the five years of the program, 41 students from a variety of HBCUs have participated in the program. Funding for this program is set to expire in August 2023 and an application is expected to be submitted in response to the new Diversity Action Plan RFA to be issued this summer. Funding associated with this RFA would not be available in time to recruit a new group of students for the summer of 2024. In order to maintain continuity of the program, supplemental funding will allow matriculation of a group of students to attend a one-year program in the summer of 2024. Because this would preclude commitment to a two-year program, the introduction year to genetics, genomics, and laboratory practice will be omitted from the program and a smaller number of students will be recruited who have had some previous exposure to work in a laboratory. Despite this change, it is important to continue to offer the program uninterrupted, to foster established relationships of UAB and HudsonAlpha with many of the HBCUs in the state. Hence, for the summer of 2024 supplemental funds would support a one-year program where students will have the opportunity to choose to work either at UAB in a research laboratory or at HudsonAlpha with a faculty investigator or a biotechnology company hosted on the HudsonAlpha campus. As in the past, seminars will be provided intended to provide career counseling to students and an opportunity for students to present their work at the end of the summer. Of note, this is a proposal for an extension with funds requested for the period of performance of September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024.