The Rosetta Commons REU program provided summer research training for 61 students from summer 2021 through spring 2023 [summer cohorts for 2020, 2021, 2022, with some additional research continued remotely during the following school year.]. Seven of these students researched with and were funded by industry partners. The program collected 1,060 applications for admission during the three-year period. Of these 61 students, 18% identify as African American or Black, 7% identify as Latin or Hispanic, and 3% identify as multiracial. Sixty percent of the interns identify as female and 6% identify as non-binary or none.

This REU program has achieved its overall goal of engaging students through hands-on research experiences, following best practices for retaining students from diverse backgrounds, and providing unique experiences in cyber-enabled collaborative research. The program has also laid the foundation for interest in graduate research, future inters presentations, and published papers. After the REU, interns completed the SALG URSSA survey. Eighty-seven percent of interns reported that they are more likely to pursue a PhD in STEM because of the REU program. Ninety-eight percent of interns reported that the REU program prepared them for graduate school. All the interns surveyed rated the research experience as good to excellent.

The REU interns were trained on the Rosetta Commons software through a weeklong boot camp hosted at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Training topics included Python instructions 1 and 2, C++ libraries, ligand docking, protein docking, and loop modeling, and much more. The interns were trained by faculty and former Rosetta Commons REU interns. The REU interns performed research in labs at various universities, including the University of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Harvard University, and the University of California, San Francisco.

The interns participated in responsible conduct of research training and were included in an REU program local to their host university, to provide them with a peer group and activities. The REU cohort used Zoom to meet for a virtual journal club, where each week, two interns lead a literature review and then made brief presentations on their research. Faculty mentors were present at each meeting to ask pointed questions and present a mini lesson. These faculty mentors covered topics including imposter syndrome, responding to critiques, and applying to graduate school. The interns were fully immersed in lab research and projects with intellectual merit.  Examples of projects during the summer of 2022 include:

• Predictive models for binding and developability of antibodies
• Antibody engineering by deep learning
• Protein design for immunological intervention
• Designing stimulus-responsive enzymes for targeted chemotherapy
• Applying machine learning to protein design
• Reshaping protein energy landscapes to optimize dynamics/function

This program engaged undergraduates in a cyberlinked REU program within a geographically distributed collaborative scientific community. It featured creative combinations of disciplines including biology, chemistry, computer science, and engineering. REU interns were vital in the planning and progress in their assigned projects. The projects promoted learning, skill development, career exploration, and teaching. At the end of the summer, the interns presented posters on their work at the annual RosettaCon conference. The conference also provided them an opportunity to network with faculty, industry researchers, and graduate students. Interns also attend talks by various researchers within the Rosetta Commons community.

Alumni from these three cohorts have gone on to pursue doctoral degrees at institutions including Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Pepperdine, University of Cambridge, and University of California, San Francisco. Other interns went into industry at Salesforce, Abbott, DE Shaw, Neural STEM Institute, and Hewlitt Packard. Money saved through efficient program budgeting was directed towards extending some intern’s research projects into the school year. These interns continued to work with their REU faculty mentor, remotely and increased their research progress and experience. Overall, the Rosetta Commons REU program has attracted, trained, and mentored a diverse group of interns.

Last Modified: 01/02/2024
Modified by: Jeffrey J Gray