This is a renewal application for short-term training for students in health professional schools. The overall long term objective of this proposal is to stimulate research interests in talented veterinary students and to expose them to opportunities inherent in a research career. The program will provide research training opportunities for veterinary students in the following biomedical research areas: digestive diseases, infectious diseases, biotechnology/reproductive biology, neuroscience/behavior, and international/wild life medicine. This program is specifically designed to introduce students to active biomedical research environments and to train them in following specific areas: critical evaluation of published data, development of hypothesis, preparation of research proposals, experimental designs, research ethics, analysis and organization of data, and oral and written presentations of results. The proposed program will accept 15 students per year, and the students will be selected on a competitive basis. All first and second year veterinary students will be eligible to submit a research proposal using a standard format with input from a program faculty of his/her choice. The submitted proposals will be evaluated and ranked in order of merit by a faculty committee using predefined criteria. Apart from the scientific merit of the proposal, preference will be given to minority students, to be actively recruited, and students who exhibit willingness to continue to conduct research beyond this training period. Training during the months of June, July and August will take place in established laboratories with ongoing projects and funding. Each trainee will attend a seminar series conducted by the program faculty, submit a written report and make a oral presentation at the annual veterinary student research day. The success and impact of the program will be evaluated by using a survey method to determine the number of trainees actively involved in biomedical research following their initial training period.
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