The Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is a full time commitment for 10 consecutive weeks. During this time, you will attend the Summer Seminar Series, work in any of our 200 cutting-edge laboratories, participate in special workshops, and engage with other SURP fellows, faculty, and current PhD and MD/PhD students.
You will submit works-in-progress reports and present research posters, all the while gaining insight into the life of a graduate student, learning more about our programs, and, of course, receiving housing and your stipend.
Seminar Series
SURP’s scientific environment is further enriched by our Summer Seminar Series, which brings the fellows together each week, exposing you to other research projects and ethics and policy discussions. Previous seminars have included topics such as:
- Transgenic mouse as a model system for studying nervous system development
- The molecular mechanisms for signaling between cells
- Molecular approach to genetic diseases
- How sex hormones affect the brain and modulate behavior
- From molecules to circuits: an anatomical substrate for dementia
- A basic bioenergetics dilemma
- Biological functions of promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF)
- The life cycle of HIV
- Herpes virus replication
- HIV pathogenesis and development of models for therapy
- Protein modules as a biological velcro
- Myofibroblasts-- friend or foe?
- Organization and plasticity of the motor cortex
- Tumor suppressor protein p53
Areas of Research
Based on the interests that you and other SURP fellows have expressed in your applications, you will be matched with specific research mentors who are carefully chosen from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences faculty. You will spend your summer in the laboratory, engaged in supervised research, and will participate in cutting-edge projects in one of our multidisciplinary training areas, focused on one of many areas, including: