Undergraduate Summer Training in Cardiovascular Research (USTiCR)

This application is for funding five undergraduate students to work in a training faculty lab. The training faculty in this proposal are all active members of the University of Kentucky Cardiovascular Research Project area and affiliated with the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) at The University of Kentucky. Mentors work as pairs to increase the breadth of training opportunities for the summer fellows. Major problems addressed in the training faculty lab include vascular function, heart function, and the response of the heart and vasculature to a variety of insults including myocardial infarction (heart attack), blood chemistry (lipid regulation), high blood pressure, and circadian timing. In addition to in-lab summer training, enrichment activities include ample opportunities to present work in oral platform and poster formats. These summer students are integrated into summer on-campus meetings to expose them to a broader community. A key enrichment facet is a weekly Friday lunch session that includes panels of faculty, cardiology fellows, and graduate and professional school students. In these Friday sessions, life-work experiences are shared. A capstone project for the program is the invitation to all summer students to present at their work at the annual Saha CV Research Day. Given that this is a training grant the most important issue that this proposal addresses are encouraging the bright, motivated students to engage in research to discover new pathways for cardiovascular disease and ultimately for prevention.