Short-Term Institutional Research Training Grant

Research is an essential element any medical professional’s training and professional development. However, many medical students have limited opportunities to participate in laboratory, clinical or translational research during their training. As a consequence, the number of physicians that can be recruited into research careers is modest. The Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) allows medical students from any US medical school to experience research firsthand by spending 9-10 weeks conducting research and analyzing data in the clinical, outcomes, and basic science research laboratories of established faculty investigators at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (UCCOM) and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The goal of the MSSRP and this Short-Term Medical Student Training Grant (T35 DK060444) is to provide medical students with short-term opportunities to participate in research projects that align with the NIDDK mission. To achieve this goal, we provide high quality, structured interactions with UCCOM / CCHMC faculty through focused research projects and outstanding mentorship. Since NIDDK support of the MSSRP began in 2001, T35 DK 060444 has supported 299 medical students and been cited in 163 publications. The number of UCCOM faculty with NIDDK-focused research programs has expanded considerably in recent years with a significant increase in NIDDK funding from $16.6 million in 2013 to $36.0 million in 2023. A partial list of research areas includes 1) gut microbiome and mucosal immunology, 2) inflammatory diseases of the liver and viral hepatitis, 3) liver development and hepatocellular carcinoma, 4) allergic and immune responses, 5) urologic and hematologic disorders, 6) organoid biology, 7) enterocyte biology, mucosal inflammation, and inflammatory bowel disease, 8) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, 9) intestinal transport/absorption, 10) obesity and diabetes, 11) renal injury and rejection, renal carcinoma, chronic kidney disease, and 12) nutritional aspects of health and disease.