Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF)

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Abstract: Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF) The Mayo Clinic has a rich history in both basic science and clinic science research in Nephrology & Urology, and has active PhD, MD and MD-PhD training programs. Annually, the Mayo Graduate School receives >1200 applications from Undergraduates to work with Mayo Clinic Investigators. The Mayo Clinic is home to both an O’Brien Urology Research Center as well as a Mayo Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center. Both Mayo Centers are one of four NIH funded Centers in the US. For the past several years, both Centers have received supplemental funds to support summer undergraduate research related to kidney stones and PKD, respectively. This proposal (renewal), in response to RFA-DK-18-006 (R25) merges these three successful summer undergraduate programs (~115 students) into a more generalized Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF). Several students from Mayo’s programs have entered PhD, MD, or MD-PhD programs, or have co-authored Nephrology or Urology-oriented peer-reviewed papers. Over the next 5 years, we proposed to fund 14 students/summer (70 students total) through nuSURF to work specifically with Mayo Investigators engaged in basic or translational research in Nephrology & Urology. This 5 year period will allow undergraduates in the program to perform innovative Nephrology & Urology research with leading Mayo Clinic research laboratories. Students will also participate in various educational programs (e.g., weekly seminars and mini-courses) to enhance their research experience. Their 10-week summer experience will culminate with (1) a 10-minute oral presentation of their work, (2) a Mayo-wide Summer Undergraduate poster presentation (> 120 student/yr) and (3) a NIDDK-KUH Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium held annually at the end of the Summer at one of the funded R25-centers. Following the Summer Program, students will be academically tracked to determine the effectiveness of the Mayo nuSURF experience in Nephrology & Urology, basic research and clinical medicine. Our goal is to increase the number of basic and clinical Nephrology & Urology researchers as a result of this nuSURF training experience.