The University of Pittsburgh Summer Research Internship Program kidney workshop (SRIP-Kid)

Abstract Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 30 million Americans leading to estimated annual health care costs of $40 billion. Moreover, there are few therapies for CKD and only palliative treatments for patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), namely dialysis or kidney transplantation. In addition, there is large unmet need to train the next generation of kidney-based researchers to develop new and effective treatments and cures for the myriad of kidney diseases. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has many investigators across multiple departments with NIH funded track records of kidney-based research ranging from laboratory based to patient oriented research. These same investigators have strong track records of mentoring. We are requesting funds to provide room, board and a stipend to bright undergraduates that will work with mentors on kidney-based research. This program will allow students to perform research for a 10-week period over the summer as part of the Summer Research Internship Program kidney workshop (SRIP-Kid). The pool of diverse undergraduates will come from a wide range of Universities around the country. This program will be administered by the Division of Pediatric Nephrology and will include faculty from the Pediatric Nephrology Division, Adult Renal-Electrolyte Division, and Critical Care Nephrology Department. The major goals of this program will be achieved by providing novel didactics on renal topics and career advice to participants. Select members of the training faculty will meet weekly with all students to provide a one-hour didactic session on a renal topic followed by a 30-minute discussion on a pertinent paper and a discussion about career options as a nephrology researcher. Furthermore, we will provide research training under the mentorship of world-class kidney researchers. A multimedia platform has been developed specifically for this program and will act as an interface for future, current and past students. SRIP-Kid students will be matched with one of the training faculty to pursue a research project. Given the breadth of the training faculty research interests, students will have the opportunity to work on a laboratory-based project or a patient oriented research project. At the end of the 10 weeks, the students will present their work as an oral presentation. Upon completion of this summer program the students will have had exposure to a wide array of kidney-based research topics, to nationally respected clinician-scientists and PhD scientists, and to a specific kidney-based research project. Given that decisions about a specialty in medicine and/or research focus often happen in early stages of training, the intent of this program is to increase the number of trainees that will eventually become clinician-scientists or PhD scientists in nephrology. We will monitor the student’s future career decisions through social media platforms related to this summer program.