Purpose

The College of Medicine Summer Research Program offers medical students the opportunity to work with faculty on research projects in basic or clinical disciplines for a 10-week period. The students are matched with a faculty mentor in their chosen area of interests. The student and faculty mentors will discuss the summer project prior to initiation of work in the laboratory. Additionally, the program will feature various group activities, including a weekly meeting to further explore the principles of scientific investigation, including topics of publication, research funding, ethical aspects of human and animal experimentation, regulatory issues, and peer-review. In addition, students will have the opportunity to attend scientific seminars and workshops. Faculty mentors are located on both the College Station campus and Temple campus and students will be assigned to mentors convenient to their summer residence. Upon completion of this program, students will be better prepared to undertake scientific investigation (basic and clinical) and will be allowed the opportunity to continue their studies through medical school.

Expectation

The research objectives of this program are substantial and rigorous and require full-time student commitment. Participants are expected to complete the entire program and will present their research at student research day.

Program Dates

The program will begin June 7, 2010 and end August 13, 2010. A poster presentation will be on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm in the lobby of the Reynolds Medical Building.

Awards

Program participants will receive a stipend of $3,000 for the 10-week program period.

How to Apply

Complete the application form. Students will need to indicate 3 potential mentors working in your area of interest OR list your areas of interest (i.e., cancer, infectious disease, transcriptional regulation, protein structure) and mentors will be located on your behalf. Please also indicate which location you prefer. Students must also provide a statement of career goals and previous research experience, if any. For the Summer 2010 program, the deadline for the application is February 12, 2010.

Identifying a Mentor

Students should generally seek mentors who have ongoing research projects which are congruent with the students’ interest. The research interests and ongoing research projects of faculty in each department can be ascertained in several ways. A brief listing of faculty research interests have been organized into five thematic areas and are appended to the application form. A more extensive description of individual faculty research interests can be found online at http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/research/faculty/index.html. Alternatively, the web page at http://medicine.tamhsc.edu has links to each department. At each departmental web site you can follow the links to faculty web pages containing a more detailed exposition of the research interests of individual faculty.

You are strongly encouraged to directly approach faculty and discuss possible summer research projects. The members of the Summer Research Program Steering Committee (Dr. Kayla Bayless, Dr. Sharon DeMorrow, Dr. David Huston, Dr. Julian Leibowitz, Dr. Brent Mitchell, Dr. Ian Murray, Dr. Siegfried Musser, Dr. Alan Parrish, Dr. Samba Reddy, Dr. Mendell Rimer, Dr. Veronica Sanchez, Dr. Andrea Trache, Dr. Emily Wilson, Dr. Van Wilson, and Dr. Warren Zimmer) can also assist students in identifying potential mentors. To help identify and facilitate mentor-student interactions, a faculty member on each campus will serve as a contact to identify potential faculty sponsors. Contact information for each campus is given below. The deadline for the first part of the application is 5:00 p.m. Friday, February 12, 2010. The complete initial application should be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, Rm 153A Reynolds Medical Building (gradofficehsc@medicine.tamhsc.edu). Students will be notified of acceptance in March 2010.

Campus Contacts

College Station:

Houston:

Temple:

Prior to Start Date

Accepted students, in conjunction with their mentors, will write a Research Plan describing their proposed research. The Research Plan should be 1-3 pages in length, and will consist of:

1. Title of Project
2. Specific Aims (objectives)
3. Introduction and Background
4. Experimental Approach, including Methods
5. Significance
6. IRB or AUP approval number of project
7. Key References (this section will not count against the page limit)

The Research Plan should be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies (153A Reynolds Medical Building) by May 14, 2010.