Dear Colleagues,
At the MU School of Medicine, we train the next generation of health care providers and researchers to meet the future health care needs of our patients. Our students are trained by outstanding faculty who specialize in the most pressing health care needs. These training opportunities extend beyond just the classroom and often into career-long mentorship connections.
Our School of Medicine Research Council and the Dean’s Advisory Research Council recently hosted the second annual ForMUlation research networking event. The evening was designed to allow medical students to interact with active investigators who represent different fields in our medical school, such as neuroscience, cancer biology, metabolic diseases and genomics, cell stem transplantation, vascular biology, surgery, virology and immunology.
Mentorship opportunities are vitally important for our developing physicians and researchers. I was thrilled to see more than 110 medical students meeting with more than two dozen faculty members at the event. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with mentors, hear about their research projects, and begin to “forMUlate” their research interests.
Most of the students were in their first year of medical school. They are looking for a faculty research mentor to work with during the summer research fellowship (provided by the SOM Research Council) between their first and second years. At the ForMUlation event, the students cycled through three rounds to introduce themselves to mentors and learn about research occurring within their respective laboratories. So, the event was like “research speed dating!”
Plans are underway for future ForMUlation events, and I cannot wait to see the fruits of these new relationships. Kudos to our Research Council for developing these programs to help us prepare the next generation of physician-scientists!
Sincerely,
Rick Barohn, MD
Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Hugh E. and Sarah D. Stephenson Dean, School of Medicine
rbarohn@health.missouri.edu
