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The Science of Summer

IUSM's varied summer programs let pre-med students explore the possibilities

A year ago, Jackson State University sophomore Kimberlie Milton was all set to be a high school chemistry teacher. But a summer of participation in the Short-Term Training Program for Minority Students in Biomedical Research changed her mind.

Although passionate about chemistry, Milton says she never even considered pursuing a graduate degree or a career as a researcher. There was only one minority chemistry professor on her historically black campus in Indianola, Miss., and "I used to think for a black woman to get a PhD was impossible," she says. "Now I've worked with people who have achieved this goal and I know it's okay for me to shoot for this, because I see it can be accomplished."

Milton joined more than one hundred high school and undergraduate school students who took part in a variety of IUSM programs in Indianapolis and on the regional campuses this summer. Although each program is unique, all offer students a chance to take the first step to becoming a physician or researcher.

The Undergraduate Summer Biomedical Research program targets students who are junior and senior college students who plan to apply to medical school and exposes them to research opportunities.

"Indiana has bright kids, but they often have limited exposure," explains Rodney Rhoades, PhD, professor and chairman of the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and co-director of the program. "Our goal is to open up the window so these students can be exposed to biomedical research."

Rhoades says the students' research is mostly translational in nature, helping students understand how laboratory research relates to clinical applications. Their research experience also allows students to discover non-traditional avenues to knowledge and makes them more competitive for residencies later. In fact, Rhoades says, with its slant on academic medicine, the program may well be generating physician scientists to serve as future medical faculty

Xavier University of Louisiana senior Philip Williams says his two summers of participation in the Short-Term Training Program for Minority Students in Biomedical Research has been a life-changing experience.

Williams once thought that a career conducting research would be boring and an MD/PhD degree impossible. But after two summers shadowing David S. Wilkes, MD, in his clinical practice and studying lung transplant rejection under his direction in a pulmonary medicine laboratory Williams has a different perspective.

"Physician scientists get this reputation of being omnipotent," he says, "but now that I have worked with them I see that they are just normal people who have worked hard, and I know I can do that too."

Like Williams, students conducting research in the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research Summer Student Internship Program have the opportunity to share their summer accomplishments with other researchers as they participate in an end-of-summer poster symposium.

Wells Center student researcher Laura Cluxton, a senior at DePauw University Greencastle, Ind., says this experience offers the opportunity to garner constructive criticism from IUSM faculty members and judges and to sharpen research presentation skills. Cluxton was one of twenty-eight high school and undergraduate students who participated in the program.

Mark Kelley PhD, associate director of the Wells Center and director of the Wells Center summer program, says the program teaches students to think outside the box by conducting hypothesis-driven research rather than the formulaic, step-by-step research they would most likely do in a regular classroom.

Cluxton spent the summer of 1999 working with Dr. Kelley and returned this summer to work with Edward E Srour, PhD, professor of medicine and pediatrics. This year, her research focused on determining if certain molecules expressed on a cell's surface are important in guiding these cells to the bone marrow of transplantation recipients.

"At a small, liberal arts school, we don't have a lot of research opportunities," Cluxton says. "Coming to a cutting-edge research facility like the IU School of Medicine is a phenomenal opportunity It has given me a new perspective on how I can use my science training in ways I had never been exposed to before."

Cluxton, who now wants to incorporate research into her practice of clinical medicine, says she is thrilled when, in lab meetings, professional researchers are interested in data she has gathered. "Working at IU gives me the opportunity to do more than just menial tasks or be a gopher for lab technicians. Here I have personal interaction with Dr. Srour and am an integral part of the lab. I have the freedom to take on all I can."