A summer physiology research program directed toward underrepresented students, UPRIME (Undergraduate Physiology Research In Medicine and Education), fosters and engages students into physiology research

Abstract

The Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of Minnesota is committed to supporting outstanding physiology majors interested in research and gaining research experience. We have created a program, UPRIME (Undergraduate Physiology Research In Medicine and Education), which has: 1) Foster young and aspiring undergraduates interested in physiology and biomedical research, and 2) Create unfettered opportunities for students that are both underrepresented in research and have strong interests in physiology research and education. UPRIME (Undergraduate Physiology Research In Medicine and Education) is a 10-week summer program hosted by the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of Minnesota and sponsored by an American Heart Association award. Students (“UPRIME Scholars”) were either juniors or seniors that had just started working in physiology labs. They were selected on the basis of: 1) Scientific merit of their projects, 2) If they were underrepresented in research (as defined by NIH and/or especially in Minnesota), and 3) If they were from low socio-economic status. To meet our goals, UPRIME Scholars met once a week to discuss research and scientific methods. As the UPRIME Scholars were relatively inexperienced in research, we designed our meetings to be safe and open spaces for encouraging discussion, especially about their research projects. Discussion topics included techniques (e.g. qPCR, histology, and cell culture), experimental design (e.g. animal models, use of controls), and developing a hypothesis. In addition, we had UPRIME Scholars attend weekly “Graduate Student Colloquia” where our graduate students give formal presentations and chalk talks about their research. Here, UPRIME Scholars were tasked to identify and discuss the hypotheses tested, animal or experimental models used, and interpretation of results. In our first two years, UPRIME Scholars reported very positive experiences in their summer research and in the usefulness of the weekly meetings. They were able to better understand why they were doing their projects, how their projects were an important part of their mentor’s research, and how to troubleshoot the techniques they used. Taken together, the UPRIME program has been successful in the fostering of undergraduates in physiology research. The UPRIME program serves as our basis for future programs for undergraduates interested in research. American Heart Association This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.