Students talk with module astatine the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research astatine USC. Students successful COMPASS volition person entree to a assembly of mentors from underrepresented backgrounds. (Photo courtesy of Chris Shinn)In September, USC received a $2.9 cardinal assistance from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to found a programme that trains students from underrepresented backgrounds for careers successful regenerative medicine. Out of the 14 institutions that received CIRM grants, USC was the lone backstage university.
The multidisciplinary programme — USC COMPASS: Creating Opportunities done Mentorship and Partnership Across Stem Cell Science — volition bring unneurotic professors and resources from the Viterbi School of Engineering, the Keck School of Medicine and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“It’s a catch-all. It’s not conscionable a programme for students who are pre-med and privation to spell to aesculapian schoolhouse oregon adjacent cognize that they privation to spell to postgraduate school,” said Senta Georgia, COMPASS manager and adjunct prof of pediatrics and stem compartment biology and regenerative medicine astatine the Keck School of Medicine. “It is simply a programme that volition springiness students the accidental to bash probe with the labs that are affiliated with our program, and get in-depth grooming to the breadth of careers and opportunities wrong regenerative medicine truthful that we tin commencement to benignant of extremity this equilibrium of the scales and spot much of these underrepresented radical successful the successful the industry.”
The two-year programme volition invited its archetypal cohort of 10 rising juniors this summer. Scholars volition person an $8,000 stipend for their summertime research, a $1,000 monthly stipend passim the schoolhouse twelvemonth and a $10,000 tuition credit.
The COMPASS exertion volition spell unrecorded by Jan. 15, 2023, connected www.compass.usc.edu. The enactment squad is presently finalizing the program’s website, which volition explicate the process for submitting applications and item the components of the program: coursework, laboratory research, mentorship, assemblage outreach opportunities and a capstone project.
“We are peculiarly funny successful recruiting students that wouldn’t needfully deliberation to beryllium progressive successful this benignant of a program,” said Francesca Mariani, COMPASS co-director and subordinate prof of stem compartment biology and regenerative medicine astatine the Keck School of Medicine. “We’ll beryllium reaching retired to the galore centers astatine USC that enactment its students, ranging from students with disability, LGBTQ+ students and students from radical groups that are typically underrepresented successful science.”
Scholars volition prosecute 12 units of required coursework and electives. Additionally, a projected insignificant successful stem compartment biology and regenerative medicine is nether reappraisal by the program office. Scholars volition implicit astir of the credits for the projected insignificant done their required coursework, but each USC undergraduates volition beryllium capable to state the insignificant should it beryllium approved.
The programme provides aggregate levels of mentorship successful presumption of vocation mentation and exposes students to assorted facets of the discipline. Scholars person entree to a assembly of mentors from underrepresented backgrounds and outer mentors from antithetic facets of government, manufacture and academia. Under the guidance of a probe advisor and mentor, scholars volition person entree to implicit 60 labs crossed University Park Campus, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Health Sciences Campus.
COMPASS volition invited its archetypal cohort of 10 juniors adjacent summer. Applications are acceptable to spell unrecorded by Jan. 15, 2023. (Simon Park | Daily Trojan record photo)“We person radical from each of the antithetic departments moving connected aging, metabolism, cancer, stem cells, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, musculus regeneration, bosom regeneration, intestinal regeneration, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, craniofacial biology, etc.,” Georgia said. “If you are funny successful it, we person a mentor and we person a laboratory that is besides funny successful it.”
Taylor Collins, a elder majoring successful planetary health, serves arsenic the archetypal writer astatine the USC Stem Cell Georgia Lab. Collins began her probe with Georgia connected the correlation betwixt diabetes and coronavirus successful the laboratory arsenic a portion of USC’s Bridging the Gaps — a summertime probe programme for underrepresented students wrong medicine and the biologic sciences. Collins said she wishes she could person joined COMPASS and recognizes the unsocial vantage it provides undergraduate students funny successful probe arsenic a two-year program.
“A batch of the probe opportunities are implicit their archetypal summertime and past that’s it, there’s nary much connection,” Collins said. “Whenever you’re lone moving for a month, you’re conscionable assisting but whenever you’re connected 1 task for 2 years, you tin really beryllium considered for publication. It shows that not lone did you bash the work, but you were truly instrumental successful putting unneurotic the task arsenic a whole.”
Collins said it is important to summation number practice successful aesculapian probe due to the fact that galore probe projects are based connected “majority achromatic oregon antheral populations,” preventing the results from being genuinely representative.
Mariani said stem compartment biologists from astir the satellite volition pb seminars astatine USC presenting their cutting-edge research.
Participation successful the COMPASS programme tin service arsenic a segue to enrolling successful the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Master of Science programme arsenic a progressive grade student.
“We tin assistance counsel students regarding post-graduate programs if they are interested,” Mariani said. “Students whitethorn adjacent beryllium capable to usage their tuition remission for immoderate of our master’s programme courses.”
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