Program Overview
The University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) PREP Scholars Program is seeking underserved, underrepresented and other disadvantaged students with a passion for science, the enthusiasm for hard work in an exciting and supportive environment, and a record of achievement at the undergraduate level. This post-baccalaureate training program is designed to prepare them for later PhD study leading to research careers in the biomedical sciences, especially in areas that address health disparities in minority populations. To promote a successful transition from a baccalaureate program in the sciences into a PhD program, and to foster successful completion of that PhD program our MU PREP Scholars Program provides:
- An individually designed, faculty mentored research experience leading to publication of research results in the scientific literature and presentation at national conferences
- Research-related academic
preparation, including graduate courses and research seminars
- Personal development, including enhanced oral and written communication and networking skills
- Planning for graduate school, including assistance with the graduate application process and GRE preparation workshops
- One (and if appropriate and available two) years of salary at $21,000/year, all educational fees paid, and support to attend scientific meetings.
This program is supported by the National Institutes of Health and is designed specifically for students who are not yet sure that they want to pursue a research career, or who feel that they are not quite ready to enter a challenging PhD program at a top research institution. MU PREP Scholars will conduct a full time research project as part of a research team, guided by a faculty mentor. They will receive advice and support from faculty mentors, program staff, and a network of successful graduate students, peer mentors, and other MU PREP Scholars as they enhance their background for entry into a highly selective PhD program.
"MU's commitment to scientific research and teaching makes it a first-rate institution that contains a hub of researchers and training programs that are nationally and internationally acclaimed. The doctoral training I received in Biological Sciences was invaluable in preparing me to meet the challenges and obligations of the professoriate. The personal interaction and accessibility of faculty and staff were key factors during my matriculation and development as an independent thinker and researcher. Many of the friendships and professional interactions I enjoy today find their origins at the University of Missouri."
Dr. Eric Walters BA, South Carolina State University; PhD in Biological Sciences at MU; currently Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Medical Alumni Association Endowed Founder's Chair at Howard University College of Medicine
An MU PREP Scholar applicant must:
- Be a member of a racial or ethnic group underrepresented in the sciences (e.g., African American/Black, Hispanic/Chicano/Latino(a), Native American/American Indian, Alaskan Native, Mainland Puerto Rican, or Native Pacific Islander [American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Melanesia, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Palau, or the Philippines]); or be an individual from a disadvantaged background; or have a disability;
- Be a citizen or a permanent resident of the United States;
- Have received a baccalaureate degree in a science major within the past two years, or be on track to earn a baccalaureate degree in a science major prior to entering the MU PREP Scholars Program; and
- Intend to apply, within two years of acceptance into the MU PREP Scholars Program, to a graduate program leading to a PhD in a biomedically-related field in preparation for a career in biomedical research.
The MU PREP Scholars Program is not designed for students seeking admission to medical or other health professions programs.
Financial Support
MU PREP Scholars receive one (and if appropriate and available two) years of salary at $21,000/year, with all educational fees paid, and $1,200/year for travel to two scientific conferences/year.
Application Process
Applicants should submit:
- The Application
Form;
- A personal essay that describes:
- your reasons for wanting to participate in the MU PREP Scholars Program;
- your reasons for wanting to pursue a PhD degree in a biomedically related field after completion of the MU PREP Scholars Program;
- your reasons for not applying directly to an MA or PhD program;
- any previous research experience that you have had;
- your future educational and career goals after you complete the MU PREP Scholars Program; and
- why you specifically fit the eligibility criteria for this program;
- Official transcript(s) of
all your undergraduate work;
- A current resume; and
- Letters of recommendation from three college science teachers and/or research mentors. If you have participated in laboratory research, one of the letters should be from your research mentor. (The letters should be mailed, sent as an e-mail attachment, or faxed directly to the MU PREP Scholars Program office by the teacher/mentor.)
Applications are processed continuously. The number of MU PREP Scholar positions is limited, so early application is encouraged. This Program is sponsored through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH Grant 2 R25 GM64120-06).
Submit all application materials, or address questions to:
MU PREP Scholars Program
c/o Dr. John David, Program Director
105 Tucker Hall
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, Missouri 65211-7400
Fax: 573-882-0123
E-mail: DavidJ@missouri.edu
"At Mizzou there are many dedicated research advisers with interesting high quality research opportunities who are more than willing to guide you along the path to becoming an outstanding scientist. I have always felt that the members of the Biochemistry department were there for me when I needed them and their number one goal is to make us better scientists."
Jermaine Lamont Jenkins BA, Salisbury State University; PhD candidate in Biochemistry at MU
Life Sciences at MU
MU's research strength lies in the life sciences, and the six departments participating in the MU PREP Scholars Program (Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Pathobiology) represent the strongest research departments on campus. Interdisciplinary research is fueled by the virtual absence of departmental boundaries and barriers. The School of Medicine and the Colleges of Agriculture, Arts & Science and Veterinary Medicine are all located within a five-minute walk of each other. MU PREP Scholar faculty mentors are involved in collaborative projects with other faculty in departments of Animal Sciences, Anatomical Sciences, Chemistry, Medicine, and Physics. Interdisciplinary degree programs in Genetics, Neurosciences, Nutritional Sciences, and Physiology provide an ideal supportive environment for research opportunities at the intersections of traditional disciplines. Only five other campuses in the U.S. offer the diversity of life science programs that is found at MU.
Research Resources
In addition to all the equipment and supplies in their mentor’s lab, all MU PREP Scholars have access to a wide variety of specialized common-use equipment including: state-of-the-art fluorescence, interference-contrast and confocal fluorescence microscopes equipped for single-cell injection, laser ablation and digital image analysis; microneurosurgery facilities; sound isolation acoustic chambers; x-ray processors; phosphoimagers; and transgenic animal facilities. All of our laboratories are connected to an Ethernet computer network with direct fiber optic mainframe and library file access. MU is connected to Internet 2.
MU operates core facilities for: (1) protein microsequencing and peptide synthesis; (2) DNA sequencing and oligonucleotide synthesis; (3) monoclonal antibody production and cell sorting; (4) immunocytochemistry and confocal laser microscopy; (5) scanning and transmission electron microscopy; (6) transgenic animal production; (7) structural biology; (8) microarrays; and (9) proteomics.
"I enjoyed Mizzou and the training opportunities it offered me. As an undergraduate NIH-MARC fellow I worked in university laboratories around the country and can say with great certainty that the scientific community here is one of the best. The MU PREP program allowed me access to first rate research and guided me towards physiology as my chosen field."
Lana Bruney BA, Alabama State University; PREP Scholar 2003-04; currently PhD candidate in Medical Pharmacology and Physiology at MU
Graduate Program Quality
PhD students in the PREP departments take an average of 5.2 years to complete their degree, in comparison to the national average of 6.9 years. Our year-one to year-two retention rate is 86% for all PhD candidates and 100% for minority PhD candidates. Our graduation rate is 72% for all PhD candidates. On average our PhD graduates publish 4.4 refereed papers and present their research at 4.2 national or international meetings.
Our PhD graduates move rapidly into excellent post-doctoral positions, faculty appointments and research positions in industrial and government labs. In the last 4 years our PhD graduates moved into postdoctoral positions at Alabama-Birmingham; Case Western; Children's Hospital Boston; Cleveland Clinic; Cornell; Georgia; Harvard; Illinois; Instituto de Ecologica, Chile; Joslin Diabetes Center; Miami; MD Anderson; MU; NIH; North Carolina; Oak Ridge; Pennsylvania; Rice; Rockefeller; St. Jude; SUNY; Toronto; Trudeau Institute; UC-Berkeley; UC-Davis; UCLA; UC-San Diego; US Forest Service; Virginia; Washington; Washington Univ.-St. Louis; Wisconsin; Wistar Institute; and Wyoming. Others moved directly to faculty positions or staff scientist positions.
"The year I spent as a PREP Scholar at MU confirmed my commitment to be an active member of the biomedical research community. I was impressed by the intelligence and keen insights of the Ellis Fischel Cancer research group and especially Postdoctoral Fellow Kristen Taylor who patiently mentored me all year. I enjoyed being in an environment where learning was important and supported. This experience is something that I will carry with me throughout the rest of my career."
Keila Pena-Hernandez BA, InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico; PREP Scholar 2004-05; currently PhD candidate in the Pathobiology Area Program at MU
The MU PREP Scholars Program Faculty
MU PREP Scholars are carefully matched with MU faculty mentors with similar or identical research and career interests. Our faculty mentors in Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, and Veterinary Pathobiology have exceptionally productive research programs at the cutting edge of the modern biomedical sciences, excellent records as mentors for both graduate and undergraduate students, and are all well funded. All have doctoral students and 75% are training post-doctoral fellows. Much of the power of their work comes at the interfaces of traditional disciplines and we encourage our students to work at those very same interfaces. A mentor will spend 4-10 hours/week with their Scholar.
Unraveling the cellular and genetic regulatory mechanisms that control basic developmental processes including growth and proliferation, migration, differentiation, and morphogenesis, will provide enormous insight into the mechanisms underlying genetic diseases and cancer. The faculty mentors in Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in Development examine the regulation of neural development, DNA repair mechanisms, epigenetic regulatory phenomena, intercellular and intracellular signaling mechanisms, and hormonal control in development and cancer. They use bioinformatics and computational tools to manage genomic information and study the evolution of molecular structures.
Our faculty mentors in Molecular and Biophysical Aspects of Cardiovascular Function and Adaptation study complex behaviors and interrelationships of organs as influenced by cellular, subcellular and molecular events. Their research programs focus on an understanding of cardiovascular function in healthy organisms and how the cardiovascular system adapts to acute and chronic stimuli in disease. They study cardiovascular and skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise training, neurohumeral control of cardiovascular function, cardiovascular dysfunction in diabetes and hyperlipidemia, membrane transport biophysics, the pathophysiology of hypertension and shock, and dysfunctions in cystic fibrosis.
Our faculty mentors in Microbial Pathogenesis have a wide range of interests and specialties in pathology and microbiology and apply advanced biotechnology to solve perplexing biomedical questions including conquering the emerging infectious microorganisms and parasites that pose a significant health risk to humans. They study the microbial physiology and genetics, pathophysiology and epidemiology of mammalian disease, pathogen-host interactions, infectious and parasitic diseases, inheritable diseases in animal models, viral gene regulation and pathogenesis, and immunity to infectious diseases.
Our faculty mentors in Neurobiology and Behavior study nervous system development, neural function, responses to injuries of the nervous system, and disease processes. They investigate the molecular and cellular organization of the nervous system, the structure and function of neural systems (including vision and hearing), behaviors generated by the nervous system, and neurological diseases and disorders. They approach those problems from a variety of perspectives including sensory physiology, sensory-motor integration, developmental neurobiology, and neurogenetics.
"I am pursuing a PhD in parasitology because of my interest in host-parasite interactions and, more specifically, malaria. I chose the University of Missouri-Columbia because Dr. Brenda Beerntsen, my advisor, is investigating mosquito-malaria interactions and because the university has the courses, facilities, and faculty that are necessary for the successful completion of my doctoral degree. I plan to continue with postdoctoral studies in tropical disease research and hope to spend a portion of my postdoctoral career in a region where tropical diseases are prevalent. Then, I hope to have my own laboratory where I can continue to investigate host-parasite interactions and share my knowledge with other young scientists in the way that so many of my mentors have done for me."
Alexis Epps BA, New Mexico State University; PhD candidate in Veterinary Pathobiology at MU
Our Former Scholars
We supported 15 PREP Scholars in the first four years of our program. They came from: Alabama State, Florida A&M, Inter American of Puerto Rico, Knox, Loma, Medgar Evers, Savannah State, SUNY Stony Brook, Tennessee State, UC-Davis, and Wilberforce.
Fourteen of the 15 completed the PREP program and the other one left to become a staff scientist in industry. Twelve of the 14 graduates (80%) applied to PhD programs and 10 (83% of those that applied) were accepted. Those former PREP Scholars are now completing PhD programs at the Medical College of Georgia (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), University of California-Riverside (Genomics and Bioinformatics), Wright State (Physiology), and MU (Biological Sciences, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, and Pathobiology). Nine of the 14 Scholars who applied for graduate programs won competitive institutional/national scholarships/fellowships. All are fully supported in their PhD programs. Of the 4 former Scholars who are not in PhD programs, one is completing a DO/MPH, another just completed her MPH, a third just completed an MA and is applying to PhD programs, and the fourth just entered an MD program.
MU Provides a Diverse, Welcoming and Supportive Environment
The University of Missouri-Columbia (MU)
Columbia is the flagship campus of the University of Missouri system and is home to more than 1,200 faculty, 6,100 graduate and professional students, and 21,600 undergraduates. Our graduate and professional students come from 50 states and more than 100 countries.
MU actively seeks students from underserved (economically disadvantaged and first-generation college) and underrepresented (ethnic and racial minority) groups in order to further our comprehensive effort to increase the diversity and the quality of this nation's scholar talent pool. The 1,223 undergraduate majors in the participating PREP departments include 11.0% African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. Minority students represent 10.9% of our combined PREP department doctoral student body. The percentage of minority students in the PhD programs in our PREP departments (10.9%) is 1.2 times the national average.
The Chancellor has committed his full resources through the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative to increase student, faculty and staff diversity and to actively support members of underrepresented groups on the MU campus through programs that cultivate equity and inclusiveness. As a consequence, MU as an institution understands, values and actively supports diversity in all its forms and includes individuals from different races, ethnic backgrounds, economic backgrounds, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, geographical origins, talents and interests, and political beliefs and values. Immersion in this rich diversity will enhance your capacity to learn, teach and live productively and peacefully, and indeed to thrive in an increasingly diverse and cross-cultural society and world.
Social and cultural organizations are an important part of MU's extensive and highly effective support infrastructure designed to promote an inclusive environment, networking, and a sense of community among all students. The Association of Black Graduate and Professional Students, the Black Culture Center, the Hispanic-American Leadership Organization, the Women's Center, and a local chapter of the Association of Women in Science offer minority students a place to meet, mingle, and enjoy new friends. In the spirit of developing "one campus", their programs are inclusive rather than exclusive, and offer cultural, educational and social events that provide all students an opportunity to celebrate their own culture, background, special interests, and customs while simultaneously sharing them with the wider campus community. They provide academic and personal counseling and opportunities for all students to interact freely and responsibly with one another. The Access Office coordinates services for students with mobility, visual and hearing impairments and learning disabilities. There are very strong Black and Hispanic communities on campus and in Columbia.
"The University of Missouri-Columbia has tremendous resources as well as the best educators and researchers in the country. Faculty in my former department of Physiology are editors of journals in their respective field, leaders of multi-million dollar NIH funded grant projects and awardees of the highest honors in their area of research. But the nicest thing about being a student in this environment was that I felt the faculty and staff were approachable. They care about training future scientists... or rather their future colleagues. They are very interested in your development into an independent thinker, future leader and a valuable scientific contributor."
Dr. Sonia Houston BS, Spelman College; PhD in Physiology at MU; currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York Medical College MU
The Community
Columbia, population ca. 90,000, is a vibrant, inclusive college town of multiple and diverse cultures that is consistently ranked as one of the 20 most livable cities in the United States. The environment is warm, and the weather pleasant. Downtown Columbia is immediately adjacent to campus with great coffee shops, bookstores, and many fine restaurants. Entertainment options abound, with a great art/eclectic movie theatre and a vibrant local music scene with a fabulous jazz series and classical music series.
"This program was a great learning experience, and it helped me to decide that I wanted to attend graduate school."
Willie Agee BS, Savannah State University; MU PREP Scholar 2003-04; current PhD candidate in Biomedical Sciences at the Medical College of Georgia
© 2009 University of Missouri-Columbia