Veterinary Summer Scholars in Comparative Medicine

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Veterinarian-scientists provide critical disciplinary and technical expertise for advancing biomedical research. Due to their broad understanding of animal anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and disease, they possess key knowledge for cross-species comparative medicine and for experimentally-induced and naturally occurring animal models of human diseases. Veterinarian-scientists also provide contributions to human welfare through critical roles in One Health initiatives, including in global food security and in emerging and zoonotic diseases and ecosystem health. One key area of importance is that approximately 75% of recenUy emerging infectious diseases affecting humans are diseases of animal origin some of which are in wildlife reservoirs. However, the US National Research Council, an NIH Physician-Scientist Workforce Working Group Report, and the NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs have all emphasized that the veterinarian-scientist workforce is far underrepresented and underutilized in biomedical research. Reasons for this include limited access by veterinary students to biomedical research programs and appropriate training. The objective of our "Veterinary Summer Scholars in Comparative Medicine" T35 training program is to provide direct biomedical research experiences to first and second-year veterinary students in order to increase the numbers of researchers in the veterinary-scientist pipeline. Our approach will consist of 1) providing opportunities to conduct comparative biomedical research in an environment of collaboration and discovery by mentors who are basic and clinician-scientists, and 2) providing research training in the form of lectures, discussions and activities focused on responsible conduct and ethics in research, experimental design and quality assurance, conflict management, research communication, and career pathways in the biomedical sciences. New innovations described in this renewal application include additional science communication sessions, increased opportunities for continued research experiences during veterinary school, as well as more interprofessional interactions by our T35 trainees with other health professionals in the university's Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI}, with trainees in our CVM T32 Comparative Medicine Training grant, and other similar health sciences programs to promote team-science. The proposed T35 training program involves a critical mass of faculty mentors from our health sciences schools (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine) at the University of Minnesota for providing multidisciplinary and state-of-the-art research experiences.