The UAB Diabetes Research Center (DRC) (P30 DK-079626) and the Student Research Training Program (T32 DK-062710) are sponsoring summer research fellowship opportunities for medical students interested in performing diabetes-related research between their freshman and sophomore years. Diabetes-related research is broadly defined. This can include basic, clinical, health services delivery, or community-based research, and can be pertinent to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, micro- and macro-vascular complications, basic biology and disease mechanisms, obesity, cardiometabolic disease/Metabolic Syndrome, and disease treatment or prevention. DRC members with a status of “senior scientist” or “scientist” can serve as mentors for the project. A list of these faculty members can be found on the DRC website.
The fellowship program will fund up to 6 students each summer. Students can initiate discussions with DRC member faculty at any time to explore projects and fellowship possibilities. For more information or for advice concerning projects, please contact the Director of the DRC, Dr. Ananda Basu, MD (anandabasu@uabmc.edu) or the DRC Program Director II, Rachelle Lawhorn (rlawhorn@uab.edu).
Along with the valuable research experience obtained from this program, students will receive a stipend for participation. The stipend will be up to $3,600 per month for the minimum 8 weeks up to the maximum of 12 weeks (set by NIH). The DRC will pay travel expenses to a symposium at Vanderbilt University up to $1000 to be reimbursed after the event takes place (see below).
Requirements for Students
- Students will perform original research for 8-12 weeks under the direction of the mentor over the course of the summer.
- Students will attend a series of lectures (once a week) on research and research ethics.
- Students will be required to submit an abstract and present a poster of their work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and the DRC will reimburse expenses of travel. In Nashville, our students will join other medical students from around the country who have conducted research at other medical universities with NIH-funded diabetes centers.
- Students will present a poster of their work at the UAB Medical Student Research Day.
- If the student continues to work on the project as part of their scholarship activity in the junior/senior year, the fellowship program will also support a trip for the student to present the research at a national scientific meeting (e.g., the American Diabetes Association, AFCR/ASCI/AAP, FASEB, etc.).
It is required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that all posters and publications that result from this summer experience will acknowledge on that poster and publication the DRC and Obesity Training Program as follows:
The project described was supported by Awards Numbered P30DK079626-UAB Diabetes Research Center and T32DK062710-UAB Student Research Training Program (STRP) in Diabetes and Obesity, Kidney Disease, and Digestive Disease of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIDDK or the National Institutes of Health.
Please visit Medical Student Summer Research Programs website to apply for this program.