This award from the Division of Chemistry and Biological Sciences supports the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the Vanderbilt University for the summers of 2009-2011. The program director is Gary Sulikowski who is assisted by co-PI Michelle Sulikowski. This REU program is designed to introduce students to the excitement and importance of research in chemical biology through a mix of educational and research activities. Students will choose from nineteen interdisciplinary research teams and will be co-mentored by faculty in Chemistry and the College of Medicine. Research topics cover the continuum of chemical biology and range from targeted drug discovery and natural product synthesis to the use of mass spectrometry, computation and cheminformatics to solve fundamental questions in chemical biology. Each group will require a written report and a presentation at Vanderbilt's Undergraduate Research Symposium. In addition to interdisciplinary seminars, a drug discovery symposia and weekly lunch-based discussion groups on ethics, careers and professional development, students will take field-trips and enjoy social activities such as BBQ, baseball games and a trip to the water park. Twelve students, typically rising sophomore and juniors with an interest in chemistry, biochemistry or biology will be selected each summer. They strongly encourage applications from undergraduate students that enhance the diversity of our program. Through extensive mentoring and authentic research experiences, it is their goal to impact students understanding of the research process and the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary research. This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } THE NSF-REU Program in Chemical Biology is a program designed to train and educate undergraduates in the practice of research. The goal of the program is two-fold: to introduce students to the field of chemical biology and to train students to meet 21st century skill sets. Chemical Biology is a relatively new field that requires biologists and chemists to communicate and work together to solve problems of biological importance that meet human needs. Effective collaborations of this type can lead to the discovery of new therapeutic agents, or therapeutic tools, which can be used to treat human diseases. Students will train in the interdisciplinary, team science environment of chemical biology while participating in scientific and professional development activities. Students will broaden their horizons though a variety of scientific and professional development experiences Specially trained graduate student mentors will provide scientific and professional guidance that is tailored to each student’s needs. Through extensive mentoring and authentic research experiences, this program will impact student’s understanding of the research process and the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary research in addition to advancing science. Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Research The program offers a unique interdisciplinary training environment supported by existing collaborations between research faculty in the School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Science. Participants will make significant contributions in emerging areas under the general description of chemical biology. Such a novel approach to science requires a unique set of training opportunities for the next generation of scientisits. The research mentors in this program are highly qualified and established members of the scientific community and have a history of mentoring undergraduate and graduate student researchers. They are independently funded by NIH, NSF and other agencies; an indication that their research is creative and of high intellectual merit. The program itself consists of undergraduate students working in the laboratory alongisde a graduate student mentor who guides their research and daily acitivties. The student typically spends 40-50 hours per week in the laboratory and participate in professional and scientific development one-hour workshops twice a week. Borader Impact of Proposed Research The purpose of this program is to advance the science that takes place at the interface between chemistry and biology. The primary focus of this grant is to train students to engage in research that goes beyond their disciplinary training. For example a biology undergraduate student would conduct experiments using chemistry or conduct experiments directly in a chemistry laboratory. The ability to use tools from many disciplines significantly advances science. In addition this program offers students a multi-faceted training experience that is only available in a limited number of institutions. This type of interdisciplinary research is at the cutting of most contemporary sciences and those trained in interdisciplinary research are subsequently recruited into PhD granting programs. This program actively seeks to train a diverse pool of students (e.g. gender, ethnic, racial, disability status, geographic location, etc). Our program typically consists of 50% or more female and about 35% of students from other underrepresented groups in science. Those who complete the program typically go on to graduate or professional school and further populate the pipeline of futures scientists. The program has financially supported the training of 36 students for this grant period. In addition we welcome other undergraduates who are conducting research with our program mentors to fully participate in the REU program activities; this accounts for an additional 15 students who are trained under our program at no additional cost to the NSF. This program has provided a vehicle for creating new collaborations between researchers that would otherwise not exist. Many new and exciting long-term projects have resulted from these small collaborative summer projects. This type of "seed" research has lead to a positive change in how researchers interact with each other and in the development of new ideas that could advance the field of science. The major benefit of this research for society at large Is the development of a new generation of scientists who can work as part of team in an inter-disciplinary environment. Another potential impact of the program would be the development of new drugs to treat or understand human disease.
