Summer Scholars Program in Genome Sciences and Medicine

The overarching goal of this application is to provide a high quality mentored research experience for promising students in the rapidly growing area of genome sciences and precision medicine. Students interested in pursuing a career in genome sciences and medicine research will require a strong foundation of core genome sciences technology and inter-disciplinary training. We propose a 10-week summer program that will include a mentored research project in genome sciences and medicine, didactic and interactive training, and interaction with academic and industry scientists. The program will be open to undergraduate students from under-represented and underserved groups at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and Duke University. We propose to establish partnerships with other local institutions during the course of the award to expand the student pool. Students will have access to a range of research opportunities in applied genome sciences, data sciences, translational genomic medicine, bioinformatics and computational biology, engineering, and statistics. The summer program builds upon our rich experience in undergraduate mentorship and training by the former Duke Institute of Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) and a summer scholars program currently administered by the Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB) and past partnership with North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Through these programs, we have accepted more than 150 students, 22% of whom are from under-represented minorities and more than half of whom are women; several have successfully continued their research throughout their undergraduate career and been accepted into leading graduate programs and medical schools around the country. Students will have the opportunity to choose from a group of faculty conducting a wide range of genome sciences or medicine research as mentors for this program. The research program will be complemented by a series of training lectures and interactive learning activities from the core GCB facilities (proteomics/ metabolomics, sequencing, microarrays, and biostatistics), visits to NCCU, and visits to companies using genome sciences technologies or data in their research in nearby Research Triangle Park. In addition, students will have the opportunity to consider broader issues impacted by their research through a weekly discussion on the ethical, legal, social, and policy issues and gain important skills such as critical reading a scientific paper, leading a discussion group, conducting literature reviews, and making formal presentations. All students will be required to present their research orally at the conclusion of the program. Students in this program will benefit from the rich and highly interdisciplinary resources available at Duke for genome sciences and precision medicine research.