This T35 application requests funding for the Case Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP). The overall goal of the program is to promote the career development of physician-scientists who will choose biomedical investigation as an essential component of their long-term professional development, with a particular focus on the mission areas of the NIDDK and NIDDK-related research. These include digestive and liver diseases, diabetes, metabolism and nutrition, kidney diseases, and digestive, liver, and kidney imaging technologies. The program will educate medical students using a mentor-based research approach over an 8- week training period between the first and second years of medical school. The foundation of the proposed program is based on the strategic planning, consolidated efforts, and close academic integration of CWRU School of Medicine (SOM), Cleveland Clinic Foundation, MetroHealth, and the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, which provide a superb infrastructure for the program. The recruited faculty mentors from these institutions sustain a reputation of excellence based on superior clinical and basic research, ample funding from the NIDDK and NIDDK-related institutes, and have a combined research space in excess of 100,000 square feet. The T35 program selects highly-qualified medical students through a formal application and evaluation process that identifies a research project and mentor from highly-motivated investigators working in a research area related to the NIDDK mission. Evaluation of the program and student progress is overseen by the T35 Executive Committee and the Internal Advisory Committee. In addition, students are required to submit a written abstract and present their findings during the LePow Research Day held in August of each year. A unique aspect of the program is the multiple PI/PD approach, which allows research to span departmental boundaries and enlist preceptors with a tradition of highly-productive collaboration who have trained a large number of young investigators in an effective, interdisciplinary manner. 42 mentors from 14 departments, representing a wide range of research expertise will offer a multiplicity of research opportunities that will be tailored to the scientific interest of each trainee. We have developed an innovative curriculum that includes weekly group meetings, didactic lectures, and a novel three-day hands-on course that will be held in June each year at the start of the 8- wk research period. To assess the long-term impact of the program, we have developed a tracking system together with the Medical Education and Alumni Affairs offices that will track medical students up to twenty years after graduation. We are requesting support for the research of 20 students per year. We have strong institutional support, documented by provision of space and resources, cost-sharing, and support by the CTSC and NIDDK-funded Cleveland DDRCC. Therefore, the academic environment is ideal to support the overall objectives of this NIDDK-supported T35 medical student short-term training program.
The T35 Case Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU SOM) is designed to attract medical students to enter a career as physician-scientists in the mission areas of the NIDDK by providing these students with a short-term research program during the summer between their first and second year of medical school under the mentorship of highly-qualified and motivated faculty mentors. The academic institutional environment at CWRU SOM is ideal to support this program.
