REU SITE: Summer Undergraduate Program for Experiential Research (SUPER) in Molecular Biosciences.

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This REU Site award to The University of Texas at Austin supports the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2020 - 2022. Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors from underrepresented groups majoring in life-science fields will be trained each year. Students will conduct research, and many will present at scientific conferences. The program will be assessed using the SALG URSSA tool and students will be tracked afterwards to determine their career paths. The SUPER REU Site focuses on molecular biosciences with a theme of Cell and Developmental Biology. Projects encompass work in subdisciplines that support Cell and Development including: Imaging, Molecular Cloning, Biochemistry, Systems and Synthetic Biology, Big Data, Genetics, Genetic Transformation, and others. Examples of student projects could include: genome editing experiments to test the role of identified proteins during embryogenesis; testing the impact of recombinant proteins on synthetic liposome shapes to model vesicle formation and trafficking; or the analysis of transgenic flies or plants to determine the role of specific proteins in cell fate determination. The program’s home is the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology (ICMB). Host labs are in multiple departments: Molecular Biosciences, Integrative Biology, Neurosciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Physics. The program will foster a strong sense of community in many ways: dorm housing with SUPER students and students from other summer programs in close proximity; frequent meetings for professional development and social activities; multiple student presentations, including the Summer Research Symposium. SUPER includes training in ethics, responsible conduct of research, and biosafety. Students can apply through the SUPER web site. Application materials consist of a transcript, a current CV, one letter of reference, and short essay statements. A committee consisting of 4 faculty members and 2 former SUPER mentors will select students based on student interest in a research career, diversity needs of the program, and the holistic strength of the application. Detailed program is available by visiting https://icmb.utexas.edu/about/summer-undergraduate-research or by contacting the PI (Dr. Alan Lloyd, amlloyd@utexas.edu), the co-PI (Dr. Antonio Gonzalez, antonio.gonzalez@austin.utexas.edu), or the SUPER coordinator (Justine Mecchio, justine.meccio@austin.utexas.edu). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.