An immunology course focused on faculty research interest provides key inputs for research productivity at a primarily undergraduate institution (P4529)

Abstract

Abstract Rapid turnover of trained undergraduate student researchers and limited time faculty and students can devote to research activities during the academic year are some of the roadblocks to maintaining a productive research program at a primarily undergraduate institution. At Macalester College, a highly selective liberal arts institution, we have addressed these issues, in part, through the design and implementation of a “Research in Immunology” course that is open by application to a group of eight second- or third-year students each spring. The course consists of a journal club with reading, writing and presentation activities that immerse students in the primary literature around the faculty member’s research question, and a laboratory component that emphasizes intensive skill building while fully exposing students to novel, unanswered questions. A subset of these students then enter the lab the following summer with a high level of intellectual and technical preparation and many are highly productive in the laboratory for 2+ years providing continuity of trained personnel, critical peer mentoring and a degree of involvement in and ownership of the research problems that is rare among undergraduates. In the past 6 years, I have trained 40 students in my laboratory most of whom have taken this course. Of these, 30% have completed honors research projects and earned co-authorship on manuscripts, and 6 have gone on to PhD programs in immunology/biomedicine.