New Website Helps Medical Students Find Research Opportunities

Three students wearing white lab coats and gloves working in lab
Students working in Wolozin lab

A year into his newly created position of assistant dean for research, Matthew Layne, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, sees himself as a matchmaker connecting medical students to the large research community on the Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC). Layne’s new position is central to BUMC Provost and BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Dean Karen Antman’s goal of incorporating more research opportunities into the MD program.

Headshot of Matt Layne.
Matt Layne

“These are highly qualified, capable students, and many of them are passionate about research. They have questions, and they just need to learn about the research opportunities and how to connect with faculty so that they can join a research project,” said Layne.

Headshot of Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor

With input from the offices of Medical Education, Enrichment and Student Affairs, Layne worked with Eliana Bolanos, the executive assistant to Associate Dean for Research Andrew Taylor, PhD, to create a new website that collected all of the medical school’s student research opportunities, which had previously been spread across personal, lab and departmental websites, and provides the information and contacts all in one place. It’s part of a multiprong approach to student research that includes extending summer research into the academic year and across the four years of medical school, assessing the quantity and quality of student research, and incorporating research and an optional dedicated research year into the curriculum.

In part, the school is responding to requests from students with concerns about increased competition for residency programs, particularly in medical specialties which tend to require or favor applicants with research experience and published papers, said Taylor.

But that’s not the only reason.

Third-year medical student Lindsey Claus just started clinical rotations. Her presentation of a team research project on ultrasound education swept student awards categories at the International Association of Medical Science Educators this June. She said research gives her a measure of hope, particularly when caring for a patient experiencing a difficult and complicated prognosis.

“You kind of struggle thinking about long-term answers and structural problems, and research provides a really helpful way of figuring out what those might be,” said Claus.

Headshot of Suzanne Sarfaty
Suzanne Sarfaty

Suzanne Sarfaty, MD, assistant dean for medical education in the Enrichment Office, said based on over two decades facilitating student research, she estimates about a third of incoming students express an interest in doing research. The remainder are evenly divided between those not planning to do any research and those who are undecided, she said.

An unknown number of students make their own research arrangements and go uncounted, according to Layne. That’s something he’d like to change.

“We are working to enhance the research and mentoring experiences of all medical students. Part of this includes developing strategies to better understand where the students are performing research and tracking the outcomes of their work including publications,” he said.

By providing strategies to find mentors and projects, basic information on how to do both long- and short-term research, contacts, links to applications and scholarships, and a section highlighting student research experiences and achievements on one website, Layne is hoping to attract medical students to work through his office.

Sarfaty co-directs the Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP) with Isabel Dominguez, PhD, assistant professor of medicine. The seven-to-10-week summer program, which occurs between the first and second year of medical school, is how many medical students first experience research at BU with 40-50 students participating annually.

“We’re looking at (the MSSRP) as the launch point,” said Taylor, where the student researcher finds a project of interest, connects with faculty, learns research ethics, enhanced lab techniques and science, and gets accustomed to the lab schedule.

The school’s policy already allows students to pursue research on their own, part-time in the first two years, a four-week research block in the third year and up to 12 weeks in the final year. Students could add an optional research year, but few did, said Sarfaty.

Now students can apply to do longitudinal research, working with faculty mentors, at the beginning of their second year with an option of taking a research year between the second and third years or third and fourth years as part of the academic program. They can continue research through their final two years, supported by an advisor and advisory committee with an annual report and presentations at an annual research symposium required.

Layne sees increased participation by medical students also benefitting the school’s research community.

“They (medical students) are a fantastic resource for us to recruit into our labs because they have knowledge and motivation and passion, and the faculty can, in turn, mentor them and help them develop into physician-scientists,” he said.