BP-ENDURE: The St. Louis Neuroscience Pipeline

This application would renew support for the BP-ENDURE program in St. Louis to train undergraduate students in the neurosciences. The objective of the grant is to provide rigorous and critical training in neuroscience to a cohort of students from three partner institutions: Washington University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Harris-Stowe State University. By supporting 8 new students per year over two years of research, education, and networking experiences, this proposal will establish a Pipeline to graduate school. The Pipeline emphasizes sustained training in oral and written science communication, discovery science and outreach experience. We seek to be a Program that responds to changes in the research environment by helping our students to pursue important and innovative problems and concepts, to adopt new techniques and to communicate effectively with their peers and the general public. The training will create a community of young neuroscientists through three interactive and immersive courses, full-time summer and part-time academic year research in a neuroscience lab matched to the student’s interests and background, and presentations at conferences. The Pipeline provides intensive workshops for mentors. The curriculum and research environments will remain broad and deep, combining expertise in molecular, cellular and systems-level approaches to the study of neural function and dysfunction. Major new initiatives aimed at accomplishing these goals include: 1) creation of a new course at our Partner Institutions to develop the network of future researchers, 2) the introduction of ENDURE-ing Synapses, a course to bolster neuroscience fundamentals, literature reading and presentation skills and a sense of community among the students, 3) mentoring experiences for undergraduates in the Society for Neuroscience Brain Bee as part of their training in science communication, and 4) refinement of a near peer-mentoring program that has graduate students working with undergraduates and undergraduates working with high school students. These initiatives will ensure our students remain at the forefront of developments in neuroscience research, teaching and outreach.