Friday, July 26, 2024
7/26/2024
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This T35 application requests funding for the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU SOM) Medical Student Summer Research Program in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease (MSSRPA). The overall goal of the program is to promote career development for physician scientists who will include biomedical investigation as a career goal, with particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease, aging, and related research. The program will educate medical students using a mentor-based research approach over a 12-week training period between their 1st and 2nd years of medical school. Program mentors are based at the CWRU SOM and all four affiliated hospitals: University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center. The 19 mentors have a track record of collaboration manifest by joint publications, MPI grants, co- investigatorships on grants, and participation in a funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center or the CDC- supported Center for Prion Surveillance, and garner more than $14 million annually in external direct research support, an average of $738,000 per investigator. They represent a wide range of ranks, backgrounds, and research expertise from molecular to community-based research. Our mentors have strong training records and there is formal institutional instruction in mentoring. The Case MSSRPA will draw from a highly qualified, diverse pool of medical students through a formal application and evaluation process that identifies a research project and mentor from investigators working in a research area related to Alzheimer’s disease and aging. Special efforts will be made to enroll students from underrepresented groups in Classes A, B, and C. Program evaluation and student progress is overseen by the T35 Executive and Internal Advisory Committees. When the summer research is completed, students submit a written abstract and present their findings during Lepow Medical Student Research Day. Though the centerpiece of the program is the mentored research experience, we include an innovative curriculum that features weekly group meetings with the director and others, didactic lectures, and a three-day hands-on course held at the start of the 12-week research period, as well as instruction in the responsible conduct of research, rigor and reproducibility. Much of this curriculum will be shared with another highly successful funded T35 from NIDDK. Programmatic evaluation will use direct feedback and end-of-program surveys of students and mentors, with appropriate response from the Executive Committee. To assess the long- term impact of the program, we will collaborate with the Medical Education and Alumni Affairs offices to track medical students for 20 years after graduation. Our mentors currently train over 25 medical students in their labs, CWRU SOM requires an original research thesis for graduation, and there are more than 175 eligible students in each class, so we are confident that we can support training of the proposed 10 students per year in the MSSRPA. The academic environment is ideal to sustain the overall objectives of this short-term training program.
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).
