A model for cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional student collaboration for undergraduate immunologists

Abstract

Abstract Immunology is a cross-disciplinary field, existing at the interface of biology, engineering and medicine. Therefore, a crucial skill for immunologists to develop is their ability to collaborate with others who have vastly different expertise and skillsets, such as biomedical engineers and statisticians. Undergraduate students at the University of Toronto (UofT) have few formal opportunities to engage in these types of collaborations. Most team-based projects allow students to work with fellow immunology peers, or students from other biology disciplines; however, the opportunity to do so with students in other fields is rare. Even fewer opportunities exist to collaborate with students from other academic institutions. To address this gap, two undergraduate courses, IMM360 (Scientific Methods and Research in Immunology, UofT) and BMEG372 (Biomedical Materials and Drug Delivery, University of British Columbia), were knit together in September-December 2022 and 2023. Here, we present our scaffolded approach for promoting collaboration on a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional project. Furthermore, we will report student attitudes towards cross-disciplinary collaboration, which were assessed via surveys both at the start and end of the collaborative project. We hope that learnings from this work will inform an effort to weave cross-disciplinary collaboration throughout all years of the Immunology undergraduate program at the University of Toronto and other institutions.