Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF) - 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 >1500 applications from Undergraduates to work with Mayo Clinic Investigators. The Mayo Clinic is home to both an Kidney Stone Research Center as well as a Mayo Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center. Both Mayo Centers have been NIH funded. 2011-2013 both Centers have received supplemental funds to support summer undergraduate research related to kidney stones and PKD, respectively. This second renewal proposal, in response to RFA-DK-23-013 (R25) merged these successful summer undergraduate programs into a more generalized Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF; ~234 total students). Numerous students from Mayo's programs have entered or finished PhD, MD, MD-PhD, DO, DMD, VDM, MPH and MBA programs, or have co-authored Nephrology or Urology-oriented peer-reviewed papers. The “fruit” of the nuSURF program is that more than 25 federal / foundation grants were awarded, and at least 16 alumni (of 234) are in Nephrology or Urology-related research or clinical areas. 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 (> 180 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 continue increasing the number of basic and clinical Nephrology & Urology researchers through this nuSURF training experience. Thusfar, ~10% of our nuSURF alumni (those who have graduates college) are pursuing Nephrology or Urology-related careers.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).