Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF)

Abstract: Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF) The Mayo Clinic has a rich history in both basic science and clinic science research in Nephrology & Urology, and has active PhD, MD and MD-PhD training programs. Annually, the Mayo Graduate School receives >1500 applications from Undergraduates to work with Mayo Clinic Investigators. The Mayo Clinic is home to both an Kidney Stone Research Center as well as a Mayo Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center. Both Mayo Centers have been NIH funded. 2011-2013 both Centers have received supplemental funds to support summer undergraduate research related to kidney stones and PKD, respectively. This second renewal proposal, in response to RFA-DK-23-013 (R25) merged these successful summer undergraduate programs into a more generalized Mayo Clinic Nephrology & Urology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (nuSURF; ~234 total students). Numerous students from Mayo's programs have entered or finished PhD, MD, MD-PhD, DO, DMD, VDM, MPH and MBA programs, or have co-authored Nephrology or Urology-oriented peer-reviewed papers. The “fruit” of the nuSURF program is that more than 25 federal / foundation grants were awarded, and at least 16 alumni (of 234) are in Nephrology or Urology-related research or clinical areas. Over the next 5 years, we proposed to fund 14 students/summer (70 students total) through nuSURF to work specifically with Mayo Investigators engaged in basic or translational research in Nephrology & Urology. This 5 year period will allow undergraduates in the program to perform innovative Nephrology & Urology research with leading Mayo Clinic research laboratories. Students will also participate in various educational programs (e.g., weekly seminars and mini-courses) to enhance their research experience. Their 10-week summer experience will culminate with (1) a 10-minute oral presentation of their work, (2) a Mayo-wide Summer Undergraduate poster presentation (> 180 student/yr) and (3) a NIDDK-KUH Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium held annually at the end of the Summer at one of the funded R25-centers. Following the Summer Program, students will be academically tracked to determine the effectiveness of the Mayo nuSURF experience in Nephrology & Urology, basic research and clinical medicine. Our goal is to continue increasing the number of basic and clinical Nephrology & Urology researchers through this nuSURF training experience. Thusfar, ~10% of our nuSURF alumni (those who have graduates college) are pursuing Nephrology or Urology-related careers.