The Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) was designed to attract and support underrepresented minority students interested in pursuing careers in biomedical research as a physician-scientist. The program is administered by the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) within the School of Medicine and benefits by affiliation with campus wide Summer Programs at UCSD. The majority of training takes place on the UC San Diego campus, with affiliated faculty at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Scripps Research Institute. The program provides an 8- week research oriented training experience and gives the students the opportunity to some exposure into a clinical setting. Students are selected for the program based on their academic record in a science-oriented curriculum and potential for success in a future phyisician-scientist program. Unique features of the MSTP SURF program include an emphasis on cardiovascular disease and exposure to career path of the physician-scientist.
The specific aims of the training program will be to: 1) Recruit qualified applicants to the program;2) Place selected trainees in supportive laboratories that are actively engaged in cardiovascular research;3) Enable trainees to participate directly in a research project with appropriate supervision allowing hands-on involvement in experiments;4) Provide group activities in concert with the integrated UCSD Summer Programs, including orientation to research and research ethics;5) provide MSTP-SURF specific activities, including physician shadowing, shadowing MSTP students at the student-run free clinic, MSTP student research presentation and information on the MD/PhD pathway;6) Provide trainees with constructive feedback on academic strengths and weaknesses and counseling regarding preparation for, Medical Scientist Training Programs or graduate school.
| Spierling, Samantha R; Kreisler, Alison D; Williams, Casey A et al. (2018) Intermittent, extended access to preferred food leads to escalated food reinforcement and cyclic whole-body metabolism in rats: Sex differences and individual vulnerability. Physiol Behav 192:3-16 |
