1. Discovery Phase: where do we go from here? Co-directors contact information: Dr. Maureen Powers, Department of Cell Biology, mpowers@cellbio.emory.edumpowers@cellbio.emory.edu Dr. Hank Blumberg, Department of Medicine, hblumbe@emory.edu Ms. Tamiko Burgess, Administrative Coordinator, tjburge@emory.edu

2. Now contains almost 250 projects from virtually all clinical and basic departments. Accessible at: http://med.emory.edu/FMA/index.cfmhttp://med.emory.edu/FMA/index.cfm SEARCH RESEARCH PROJECTS>> Can be searched by: Mentor name, Department/Division, Key word. Can browse through the full database if desired. “View full database”. Database of potential research projects. In order to be eligible for the Discovery Phase, a project must be approved and visible in the Database. If you have identified a mentor independently, the mentor MUST submit the project for approval. If you need to identify an Emory mentor for an off-site project or if you can’t find something in the area you are interested in, we will work with you to help find an appropriate mentor.

3. We encourage you to meet with potential mentors to discuss projects and find the best fit for you. Please do be upfront with the mentors about where you are in your decision so that they can budget their time. Choosing a Discovery Research Project First and most important, find an area that excites you and makes you want to learn more about it. Look for projects that are part of an ongoing, productive research environment. Look for projects that pose an hypothesis-driven, focused question that can be reasonably addressed in 5 months.

4. Once you have decided on a Mentor and project: This is not yet available on the web site, but should be starting next week. From the main page at: http://med.emory.edu/FMA/index.cfm there will behttp://med.emory.edu/FMA/index.cfm a link “ Select Research Project”. This will take you to a page where you will input the name and department of your mentor and the project number. An email will then be sent to the mentor to notify her/him that you have asked to be matched to that project. Once the mentor responds affirmatively, you will both be sent and email that confirms the match and spells out your responsibilities for the Discovery Phase.

5. After your match to a Mentor and Project is confirmed: A two page (single spaced, 11 pt Arial or larger), not including the space for references, Research Proposal defining the Discovery Project is due by January 29, 2010 for a March 1, 2010 Discovery start date. The research Mentor is expected to interact with you on the development of the proposal and MUST review and approve the proposal PRIOR to submission. For later start dates, the proposal must be submitted at least 4 weeks in advance of the start date. March 1 for April 1, 2010 start, April 1 for May 1, 2010 start. The Discovery Project Proposals will be submitted online as a Word document.

6. The Research Proposal Title and Investigators. Include yourself, your Mentor(s), their Emory Department Affiliation and, if the project is not to be conducted at Emory, indicate the research site and affiliation. Introduction/Background. Provide a description of the area or issue to be investigated. This should contain sufficient information to allow your proposal to be understood by a non-specialist in the field. Be sure to include the medical significance of the issue to be investigated. Hypothesis: State in a sentence or two the specific hypothesis to be tested.

7. Research Proposal continued: Specific Aims: Enumerate the specific goals or testable questions to be addressed in the project. There will likely be 2 to 4 of these; be reasonable about what can be achieved in 5 months. Research Design: Describe how the project will be carried out. Include experi- mental methods, a brief description of statistical analyses if applicable, and the manner in which patient consent and confidentiality will be addressed, if appli- cable. This should be the largest part of the proposal. Literature Cited: Give literature references for any papers cited. Use a format that includes full article title and authors as well as the citation. References do not count against the 2 page limit for the proposal. Figures: Should be included only if necessary. These must be embedded within the text and they WILL count toward the 2 page limit.

8. The Project Proposals will be reviewed by a Discovery Research Committee of Emory faculty. The committee may return the proposal to the student for modifications if deemed necessary. Only at this point, after the Discovery Proposal has been accepted in final form, is the project considered to be approved for the Discovery Phase. After the proposal is submitted: We will make every effort to return Proposals needing changes to the student by two weeks after submission. If your proposal is submitted in advance of the final deadline for your start date, it may be turned around more quickly.

9. Some training workshops will be given during the Discovery Phase (Ethics in Research). These will be made available on line for students doing their research project outside of Emory. For Clinical research projects: no more than one half day per week can be spent seeing patients in the clinic. Research that involves patient interviews does not count toward this time. Two weeks of vacation may be taken during the 5 month Discovery Phase. This can be at the beginning, the end or at some time during this period. The timing is to be arranged with your Mentor.

10. Discovery Evaluations After 2.5 month, a Progress Report describing the status of the project will be submitted. The Mentor must review and sign off on this report Approximately 6-8 weeks after completion of the Discovery Phase, a final paper is due. This will be an 8-10 page paper in the format of a scientific manuscript. A manuscript submitted from the Mentor’s group on which the student is an author is NOT acceptable. More information on this will be provided. At the end of the Discovery Phase the Mentor will submit a letter of evaluation for the student. All students will present their research as either a talk or a poster at Discovery Research Day April, 2011. This will be part of the required Capstone course.