Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program
The State University of New York Upstate Medical University, College of Graduate Studies is offering fellowships for its 2012 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program. The aim of the SURF program is to expose undergraduate students to biomedical research. In an intensive ten-week summer program, undergraduates with appropriate faculty help will formulate their own proposal, carry out research under the supervision of one of our faculty, write a research paper and have the opportunity to see their work published. In the process, students will attend research seminars and participate in discussions on alternative careers in research and how to apply to graduate school. Students are given ample opportunities to interact directly with many of our faculty and graduate students.
The program will be held from Monday, June 11, 2012 through Friday, August 17, 2012.
Each fellow will be provided a $3,000 stipend for the period plus housing in Clark Tower, our residence hall.
Applicants to the program should be undergraduate students in good academic standing, who will be between their junior and senior years during the summer of 2012, and are majors in chemistry, biology, or a related field. Applicants must have a strong interest in pursuing a Ph.D. degree in biomedical investigative research.
The main criteria for the selection of fellows will be scholarship and the match of applicant interests with those of participating SUNY Upstate Medical University biomedical faculty members. U.S. Citizenship is not a requirement of the program.
Application
In addition to the completed application form including a personal statement of your academic goals and career objectives, please submit the following documentation:
- An official transcript of your undergraduate study to date.
- Two letters of recommendation. These may be requested from professors related to your major, an advisor, and/or department chair.
Mail supplemental documents to:
SUNY Upstate Medical University
College of Graduate Studies
SURF Program
Room 3122, Weiskoktten Hall
766 Irving Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13210
315 464-4538
FAX: 315-464-4544
Email: biosci@upstate.edu
Deadline for Applications: February 15, 2012
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Mentors
- Dr. Xin Jie Chen: DNA replication stress-induced genomic instability in yeast and humans
- Dr. Michael Cosgrove: Structural biochemistry of epigenetic chromatin regulation.
- Dr. Wenyi Feng: Chromosomal DNA replication and genomic instability.
- Dr. Debashis Ghosh: Structural and computational biology of enzymes in estrogen and androgen biosynthesis; rational design of enzyme modulators in hormonal breast and prostate cancers; characterization of interphotoreceptor retinol binding proteins.
- Dr. Steven Hanes: Regulation of Gene Expression in Development and Cell Cycle.
- Dr. Huaiyu Hu: Mechanisms of brain malformations in congenital muscular dystrophies and approaches to therapy.
- Dr. Patricia Kane: Genetics, genomics, and biochemistry of cellular pH regulation.
- Dr. Wendy Kates: Investigates neurodevelopment in children with genetic disorders, through the quantitative analysis of anatomic and functional MRI.
- Dr. Mira Krendel: Analysis of the role of myosins (actin-dependent motor proteins) in membrane trafficking, cell motility, and cell adhesion. Myosins and kidney disease.
- Dr. Stewart Loh: Protein folding and protein-based switches for biosensing and functional regulation
- Dr. Juntao Luo: Cancer treatment, nanomedicine, Drug delivery, gene delivery.
- Dr. Megan Oest: Lifelong skeletal effects of maternal gestational malnutrition.
- Dr. Francesca Pignoni: Genetic control of eye development
- Dr. Mark Schmitt: Genetics of RNase MRP.
- Dr. Vladimir Sirotkin: Biochemical analysis and live cell imaging of Arp2/3 complex-dependent actin assembly during endocytosis.
- Dr. Daniel Ts'o: Neural mechanisms of visual processing, employing electrophysiological, anatomical, computational and functional imaging methodologies.
- Dr. Stephan Wilkens: Structure and Mechanism of Membrane Bound Transport ATPases by Cryo Electron Microscopy, Solution NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry.
What's the
SUNY Upstate difference?
As an undergraduate student at Mt. St. Mary's College, Jeanine Pignatelli was accepted to Upstate's SURF summer program before her senior year.
When she was in the SURF program, she got to work with microscopes that were worth $500,000 to $750,000. "Who gets the opportunity to do that?" Pignatelli said. "Not many people!."
She found that she liked research—and SUNY Upstate—so much that she applied nowhere else.
During her first year in the PhD program, when all students spend 10-week rotations in three different labs, Pignatelli found her niche. She rotated in Biochemistry and in Christopher Turner's lab in Cell and Developmental Biology, and decided on Turner's lab.
Pignatelli has won a $25,000 National Cancer Center grant for her work with cell adhesion proteins in tumors.