Summer Research Training Program

The Summer Research Training Program is Vanderbilt University Medical Center's pioneering solution to meet workforce needs in nephrology and nephrology research by offering medical students a nine-week summer research immersion program at VUMC in Nashville.

Over the last two decades the prevalence of chronic kidney disease and demand for subspecialists in nephrology has increased worldwide, yet medical students and internal medicine residents appear to prefer other disciplines.

Over half of all fellowship training programs in the United States had available positions after the match in 2020. A search for publications with the words "nephrology workforce" delivered 464 distinct articles in PubMed. NIH-sponsored mentored physician-scientist career development awards in nephrology have averaged fewer than 20 per year for several years. Some possible reasons for this are the disconnect between need and supply in nephrology, including lack of faculty role models, the intricacy of kidney physiology, and the case mix to which internal medicine house staff are exposed during training.

To help train the next generation of nephrology subspecialists, the Division of Nephrology within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center offers the Summer Research Training Program (SRTP), held each year in partnership with VUMC's Diabetes Research and Training Center.

The SRTP has four key features:

Each trainee is paired with a research mentor and each trainee conducts original research in the mentor's laboratory
A didactic lecture series consists of paired presentations from a clinician and a basic science researcher on renal diseases. These include areas of unique expertise at Vanderbilt, such as Dr. Billy Hudson talking about Goodpasture's disease, Dr. T. Alp Ikizler talking about nutrition in dialysis, and other topics. This matching of clinical and research topics allows students to see research and treatment as a continuum rather than separate worlds.
Weekly small-group meetings with the SRTPs directors to help students learn to present and contextualize their research
Each student presents her or his research at a national symposium held in Nashville at the end of the summer

Students apply to the SRTP in January of their first year of medical school. The selection process considers a wide range of factors in ranking applicants. The program's directors seek a balanced student body that includes students who already have shown proficiency in research, as well as students who have not had the opportunity to participate in research.

The program pays a summer stipend to each student, rather than charging tuition, so that we can admit students on a need-blind basis. Students from underrepresented minorities and nontraditional backgrounds are competitive regardless of prior research training.

Apply

Applications for the Summer Research Training Program 2023 will be available in December 2022.

The Vanderbilt Student Research Training Program is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and allows medical students to conduct research under the direction of an established scientist in the areas of Nephrology and/or Hypertension at Vanderbilt University Medical Center during the summer between the first and second or second and third years of medical school.

Participants are expected to work on research for eight weeks, and must participate in the National Summer Research Symposium at Vanderbilt.

Note that this application is for an umbrella program that includes not only kidney-related research, but also research on diabetes and on gastrointestinal disease. There is a section that allows you to list which of the programs you want to participate in, and if selected for the program, you will be contacted about which preceptors you would be interested in working with over the summer.

For questions about the application process, please email Karen Thompson, Program Manager, or call (615) 343-5400.

Curriculum

VOKC faculty present a seminar series for the students. The series consists of paired sessions which present a nephrology topic from a clinical perspective and from a basic science perspective. There are additional sessions regarding poster design and effective visual communication skills, as well as career workshops.

The SRTP-KD program director leads weekly "work-in-progress" small group sessions. In these sessions, students provide focused updates, followed by a discussion for the group. The student, program director and faculty member who is not a research mentor provide the group with clinical and research context for the student's project, and suggest ways to frame the discussion within nephrology. Students are asked about challenges, disappointments and barriers so that any difficulties are addressed promptly.

Faculty	Topic
Gautam (Jay) Bhave, MD, PhD	Basement Membranes: Basic Science of Collagen Assembly
Kelly Birdwell, MD, MSCI	Transplant
Anna Burgner, MD, MEHP	Glomerular Basement Membrane Diseases: Alport's and Goodpasture's
Mario Davidson	Creating a Poster
Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	Acute Kidney Injury Basic Research
Nick Ferrell	Diabetic Nephropathy: Basic Science of Hyperglycemic Injury
Rachel Fissell, MD	Dialysis: Clinical Principles
William Fissell, MD	Artificial Kidney Research
Leslie Gewin, MD	Basic Science of Chronic Kidney Disease
Adriana Hung, MD, MSCI	Clinical features and management of Diabetic Nephropathy
T. Alp Ikizler, MD	Nutrition in Chronic Kidney Disease
Devika Nair and Sheridan Parr	Career Development Panel
Edward Siew, MD, MSCI	Clinical Evaluation and Management of Acute Kidney Injury
Roy Zent, MBBCh, PhD	Kidneys are Cool

Research Mentors

Each student is assigned a research mentor affiliated with the VOKC to guide their research project and progress. The mentor works with the student to develop a research plan appropriate to the student's level of experience and interest prior to their arrival. The project is conducted and completed with the mentor in the mentor's research facility, which may be a wet lab, a clinical trials center, or a biostatistics resource.

Summer Research Symposium

All students participating in the SRTP-KD take part in the annual, two-day NIDDK Medical Student Research Symposium that is organized in conjunction with the Vanderbilt DCRT. The symposium provides students with a valuable opportunity to interact on a one-to-one basis with invited faculty and present their summer research at moderated poster sessions. For many students, this will be their first poster presentation. As they mix and mingle with NIH staff, local and visiting faculty, they develop insight and context for their research.

Students are also strongly encouraged to participate in the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting through the Kidney STARS (Students and Residents) Application. The goal of this program is to stimulate interest in nephrology careers by targeting medical students, residents, and graduate students with an interest in nephrology but who have not yet committed. The deadline for the application is generally the beginning to middle of August.

Past Participants

Year	Trainee	Faculty Members	Research Project
2021	Stephanie Bennett	Ray Harris, PhD	Aristolochic Acid Directly Activates Macrophages in Aristolochic Acid Nephropathy
	Morgan Black	Matt Wilson, MD, PhD	Genetically Modifying T-Lymphocytes to Secrete Therapeutic Proteins
	Nigel D'Souza	William Fissell, MD	Substrate Elasticity Influences Differentiation of Renal Tubule cells through a TGF-B Signaling Pathway
	Washington Johnson, III	Lauren Woodard, PhD	Efficacy of nephron-progenitor cell administration in mice with acute kidney injury
	Peter Liddell	Rachel Fissell, MD	Triple P: Patient Perspectives on Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) and the PD Catheter
	Melissa Ma	T. Alp Ikizler, MD	Cultural Tailoring of Motivational Strategies to Improve Hemodialysis Adherence in African Americans
	Teebro Rahman	Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	Defects in renal papillae repair after reversible ureteric obstruction
2019	Charlotte Blumrosen	Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS	Interventions to Improve Dialysis Treatment Adherence in Blacks with ESRD: A Systematic Review
	Saqib Chariwala	Ray Harris, PhD	Describing the Variation of a Growth versus Fixed Mentality in Home Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) Patients
	Sora Chee	William Fissell, PhD	Effect of ECM substrate concentration on prolonged culture of renal proximal tubule cells
	Sahana Harikrishnan	Adriana Hung, MD, MPH	Phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) of Uromodulin (UMOD) in the Million Veteran Program (MVP)
	Emily Newton	Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	Epithelial cell migration and tubular repair after reversal of ureteral obstruction in mice
	Architha Sudhakar	Heidi Schaefer, MD	Contract a Virus to Save a Life: A Comparison of Short-Term Outcomes Between Adult Hepatitis C Negative and Kidney Transplant Recipients Receiving Hepatitis C NAT Positive
	Trevor K. Thompson	Lauren Woodard, PhD	Urine derived stem cells may repair injured in vitro models of adult kidney epithelium
2018	Morgan Cash	Matthew Luther, MD	Case identification and genetic characterization of Cortisol-producing adrenal adenomas (Adrenal Cushing’s
	Christal Clemens	Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	Macrophage Kinetics and Phenotype are Different in Mouse Acute Kidney Injury Models: Ischemia Reperfusion and Rhabdomyolysis-induced Acute Kidney Injury
	Nikita Dahake	Barbara Fingleton, PhD	Induction of Macrophage Polarization by Colorectal Cancer Cells and Effects of Type II IL4R Blockade
	Justin T. Dzierzawski	Wenbiao Chen, PhD	Roles of Slc38a9 and mTORC1 in α- cell Proliferation
	Kathryn T. Enriquez	Alvin Powers, MD	Expression of the Cationic Amino Acid Transporter SLC7A2 is Upregulated in Mouse and Human Pancreatic Alpha Cells
	Maureen C. Farrell	Cyndya Shibao, MD	Role of CD36 in Nutrient Delivery and its Dysfunction in African Americans
	Aditya Hublikar	David Harrison, MD	Hydrogels with tunable stiffness for use in an implantable bioartificial kidney
	Simone M. Laing	Lindsay Mayberry, PhD, MS	Engaging family and friends in adults’ type 2 diabetes self-management with technology
	Sanyk McCuller	Maria Hadjifrangiskou, PhD	Characterizing unique genetic and metabolic signatures to differentiate symptomatic from asymptomatic urinary E. coli isolates
	Robert McMahon	Leslie Gewin, MD	Wnt/beta-catenin signaling augments FoxO activity in proximal tubule cells under oxidative stress
2017	Nelish Ardeshna	Adriana Hung, MD, MPH	Glucose metabolism disorders and cardiovascular health in CKD patients
	Lucas Carver	David Harrison, MD	The Role of Prostaglandin E2 in Immune Activation during Hypertension
	Brett Johnson	T. Alp Ikizler, MD	Effects of a Novel CYP3A4 Single- Nucleotide Polymorphism on Tacrolimus Pharmacokinetics in African American Kidney Transplant Patients
	James Bradley Mason	Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	The Regulation of T cell responses by Retinoic Acid Signaling in Acute Kidney Injury
	Deklerk Ngankam	Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS	Assessing Dialysis Treatment Nonadherence in African Americans
	Nicole Parellada	James Luther, MD	H-NMR Fingerprinting Assesses Effects of Aldosterone on Urinary Metabolites
2016	Rishabh Agarwal	William Fissell, MD	Sugar-induced Modifications alter biomechanical properties of Glomerular ECM
	Darrell Gachette	Kelly Birdwell, MD, MSCI	The association between insulin resistance and endothelial function in renal transplant recipients
	Brandon H. Layton	David Harrison, MD	MiRNA-762 Causes Aortic Stiffening by Inhibiting Sprouty-1
	Rabia Osman	Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS	The Impact of Provider Attitudes on Phosphate Binder Adherence
	Shannon Radomski	Heidi Schaefer, MD	The Effect of Duration of Dialysis on Mental Health-Related Quality of Life, and Symptoms of Depression
	Nivetha Subramanian	Adriana Hung, MD, MPH	Dysmetabolism of CKD and Vascular Health
2015	Apoorv Chebolu	Gautam Bhave, MD, PhD	Light Chain Deposition Disease as an animal model for nodular glomerulosclerosis
	Daniel Destiche	Heidi Schaefer, MD	Evaluating the Associations Between Clinical and Psychosocial Risk Factors and Adverse Post-Transplant Events in High Risk Renal Transplant Recipients
	Kiang Yien (Aaron) Cheung	Ambra Pozzi, PhD	Analysis of Discoidin Domain Receptor 1 expression and function in acute kidney injury
	Madison Coleman Lampkin	William Fissell, MD	Therapeutic drug monitoring – determining tazobactam concentration
	Kevin Ramesh Patel	Mark de Caestecker, MBBS, PhD	Heat Shock Protein Activation Prevents Renal Fibrosis in Acute Kidney Injury
	Supriya Shah	Matt Luther, MD	Effects of sodium restriction on insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in metabolic syndrome
2014	Thomas Chad Binns	Volker Haase, PhD	Renal interstitial cell plasticity underlies the hypoxic erythropoietin response
	Sthuthi David	T. Alp Ikizler, MD	Nutrition, Inflammation, and Insulin Resistance in End Stage Renal Disease
	Emily F. Kelly	Ray Harris, MD	The role of CSF-1 in macrophage proliferation and differentiation in acute kidney injury
	Megan Mizera	Khaled Abdel-Kader, MD	Assessing Correlates and Inter-rater Reliability of the Surprise Question in Non-dialysis Dependent CKD
2013	Amanda Box	Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS	Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Kidney Transplantation
	Gowri L. Ramachandran	Kerri Cavanaugh, MD, MHS	Facilitating Anemia Treatment Risk Communication for Patients with Kidney Disease: Decision Aid Trial Feedback
2012	Amanda Clark	T. Alp Ikizler, MD	Prognostic value of NGAL, KIM-1, and IL-18 as biomarkers in the critically ill with established acute kidney injury
	Nina Nani	Ray Harris, MD	The Role of Macrophage COX-2 in the Development of Diabetic Nephropathy