# Wake Forest Short-term Research Training Program

> **NIH NIH T35** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $48,189

## Abstract

Summary
Our Short-Term Training Grant Program for medical student summer research experiences reflects our
institution's long-standing commitment to foster students' interest in a career that encompasses clinical and
translational research. In this resubmission, we seek support for 10 student slots in a 9-week summer
fellowship. This support augments the support we have gathered throughout Wake Forest School of Medicine
(WFSM) to allow additional students to participate each year. This enthusiastic institutional support allows us to
expose more medical students to research experiences, and broadens the number of research settings and
mentors with whom they may serve their fellowship. The new Program Director/Principal Investigator of this
project, Donald McClain, MD, PhD, is a clinician-scientist who recently moved to WFSM. He has a long history
of NIDDK-relevant funding and was a PI of a previous T35 program at the University of Utah. Dr. McClain will
be advised by an experienced and diverse Executive Committee. The program is administratively based in the
Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute (WF CTSI), which comprises the central research
infrastructure for the institution and is newly augmented through a CTSA Hub award. The Medical Student
Research Program is managed by the WF TSI's Education Director, Ms. Anita Pulley, a highly experienced
medical educator who served in this role since 2008. In this program, we seek to promote and administer a
training program that provides the most promising medical students at WFSM with a meaningful short-term
research experience. To carry out this aim, we will identify and recruit talented medical students, and provide a
training environment that imparts a high-quality short-term research experience, including a weekly seminar
series focused on responsible conduct of research and incorporating student-led discussions in most sessions.
The pool of faculty mentors assembled for this T35 proposal include Wake Forest's top researchers in
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and digestive diseases and kidney research. Each also is a committed and
experienced research mentor who welcomes students into his or her research group. The capstone of the T35
experience is a Medical Student Research Day, with a prominent external speaker, student poster sessions,
and a lunch and awards for the top posters. Importantly, students will be encouraged to prepare manuscripts
for publication in the new student-run Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine, begun by medical
students who were trained in this T35 program. Finally, we will evaluate each aspect of the program with
feedback from trainees, mentors, and the Executive Committee. This feedback has been and will continue to
be used to refine and improve the program in a continuous manner. We will build on the solid foundation
established in the many years that this T35 program has enjoyed NIH support, and infuse new energy with a
new PD/PI, and a renew...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9955245
- **Project number:** 5T35DK007400-40
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** DONALD A. MCCLAIN
- **Activity code:** T35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $48,189
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1980-05-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9955245

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9955245, Wake Forest Short-term Research Training Program (5T35DK007400-40). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9955245. Licensed CC0.

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