The
CTBR’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) is an 8-week program that gives undergraduates hands-on experience in one of 53 research laboratories at Hunter College, CUNY in NYC. Our goal is to train and encourage undergraduate students to pursue
graduate study in biomedical research, and in drug abuse/addiction and neuroscience.
SPUR is now supported by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) through a R25 grant. NIDA’s mission is to lead the nation’s scientific research on prevention, treatment, and consequences of drug addiction. This funding enables us to offer students the opportunity to select from
two specialized research tracks.
Before beginning an application, please review the research opportunities in faculty laboratories on our two research tracks:
SPUR partners with the
Leadership Alliance, an academic consortium of 32 institutions dedicated to increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in scientific research. Through this partnership, we attract large numbers of students from around the country to Hunter
College for summer research experiences at the CTBR. This partnership increases the impact of the SPUR program on addressing the national issue of minority underrepresentation in biomedical research.
Undergraduate applicants must
Members of minority groups underrepresented in science such as African Americans, Latinos, or Native Americans are especially encouraged to apply.
Undergraduate students will receive the following:
All undergraduate students will participate in the following:
Research Project
Program participants conduct an independent research project with close supervision by a CTBR faculty mentor. This typically includes participation in lab meetings, data collection, data analysis, laboratory experiments, and scientific literature reviews.
Workshops
Topics include Research Techniques, Research Animal Handling, Bioimaging, Scientific Writing, and Presentation Preparation. Students will receive training to use the CTBR research facilities:
Animal Facility
Bio-Imaging Facility
Flow Cytometry
eCollaboration Facility
NMR Facility
X-ray Diffraction Facility
Seminars
Guest speakers include young minority researchers conducting successful research at academic institutions, the NIH, and in the biotech industry.
Video Presentation
Program participants present their research project at the end of the program. This final presentation is professionally video recorded and posted to the CTBR website. We encourage participants to include this video link on their CV.
Leadership Alliance National Symposium
All students in the program have the opportunity to present their research and network with other summer research program participants.
Contact
If you still have questions after reviewing our program pages, please
email the program coordinator, Christine Gonzalez – cgo0025(at) hunter (dot) cuny (dot) edu.