ROChester Stimulating Access to Research during Residency (ROC StARR) Training Program

Health and Immune Function Across the Lifespan

The Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics and Dermatology were awarded a prestigious NIH R38 grant that provides financial and mentoring support for residents to pursue an additional year of training focused on research (80% research/20% clinical) to study immune-related diseases. This is a wonderful opportunity for residents interested in pursuing an academic career in most clinical specialties to build research skills, find research mentorship, and enhance their CVs in advance of fellowship training or other career pursuits.

The goal of this new multidisciplinary ROChester Stimulating Access to Research during Residency (ROC StARR) Health and Immune Function Across the Lifespan grant is to train a diverse pool of physician-scientists to lead the development, implementation, and evaluation of new approaches to diagnose, treat and prevent autoimmune, allergic, inflammatory, and infectious diseases across the age spectrum. ROC StARR will train medicine, pediatrics, medicine-pediatrics and dermatology residents in 3 defined pillars along the full biomedical research continuum, with an emphasis on translational bench science, clinical research and trials, and health equity research and implementation science. Selected residents will engage in a team science guided mentoring program, with protected research blocks during their residency program and a research focused additional 1 year guided by a team of 35 multi-disciplinary faculty preceptors.

This research training program is funded by a R38 award (R38AI188561) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with an award period of 12/1/24-11/30/29. The R38 StARR program will support resident-investigators from the following participating departments at University of Rochester School of Medicine:

• Internal Medicine
• Dermatology
• Pediatrics

Each resident-investigator will engage in 1-2 years of 80% dedicated, protected research time, free from all clinical responsibilities. They will craft a research plan commensurate with their interests and prior experiences that may involve further training, coursework, workshops, and career development. The program will extend the residency by a minimum of 12 months, which is equally the case between residency programs; an additional 12 months of research is optional.

Leadership

Training Pillar Leadership

We offer three Training Pillars for our Resident-Investigators: Translational Research, Clinical Research, and Health Equity Research and Implementation Science. These Pillars incorporate subject  applicable research projects with paired didactics to the Resident-Investigator depending on their prior training, research questions and projected future academic trajectory. Research interests may bridge across pillars allowing tailoring of the curricular components to meet the Resident-Investigators training needs.

• Training Pillar A: Translational Research. Bridges the gap between basic science and the clinic and facilitates flow of information and discoveries from “bench-to-bedside” and “bedside-to-bench.” As such, translational science is critical for identifying how mechanistic laboratory findings can be used to improve human health and for clinical observations to inform our understanding of fundamental biologic processes. Leads: Drs. Laurie Steiner, Professor of Pediatrics and Ben Korman, Associate Professor of Medicine.
• Training Pillar B: Clinical Research. The clinical research pillar will provide exposure to collaborative research across multiple areas related to infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, or inflammation of soft tissues and solid organs. Trainees will have opportunities to pursue research along three pathways (1) Clinical Outcomes (Lead: Dr. Julie Ryan Wolf, Associate Professor of Dermatology), 2) Epidemiology of Disease and Population Health (Lead: David Dobrzynski, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases) and 3) Clinical Trials (Lead: Dr. Angela Branche, Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases).
• Training Pillar C: Health Equity Research and Implementation Science. Implementation science (IS)—a rapidly growing field facilitates and evaluates the uptake of evidence-based practices and novel processes to improve healthcare. Implementation science integrates evidence-based research findings into healthcare practice and policy. Our trainees expressed high interest in this area and Health Equity Research (HER). Several of our preceptors have research programs incorporating IS, often with a health equity lens. Leads Dr. Edith Williams, Associate Professor of Public Health and Medicine and Dr. Cynthia Rand, Professor of Pediatrics.

Mentors

Our mentors have been careful selected and all conduct a broad range of research in 3 research pillars: translational, clinical, and health equity research, with an overall theme of immune and inflammatory disease.

See our list of 35 mentors and their research interests

Eligibility

Trainees may be in any year of their residency training (not including interns), but must have approval of their program director.

Prior research experience is NOT needed (we will tailor the program to all levels of experience!)

All trainees must be:

• Residents participating in internal medicine, pediatric, medicine/pediatric, or dermatology residency training programs
• Able to commit at least 80% protected time (free from clinical responsibilities) for 1-2 years of continuous research
• An MD, DO or MD/PhD and must not have had more than one year of previous postdoctoral support from another NIH institutional training grant or individual NIH fellowship award.
• Citizens or permanent residents of the United States
  • Physicians on a temporary or student visas are not eligible

Applications

Initially, applications will be accepted as outlined below. In future years, a definitive deadline will be established to help with planning for resident schedules and timelines. This will be communicated through Residency Program Directors.

Phase 1 Letter of Interest

Interested residents should submit a Letter of Interest to Dr. Jennifer Anolik, Dr. Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, and Dr. Candace Gildner by February 1, 2025. The letter of intent should include the following:

• Applicant’s CV
• 1 page personal statement describing the applicant’s previous research experience, commitment to and interest in studying immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases, and long term career goals
• Inclusion of a brief project proposal (300-500 words) is optional but encouraged
• Mentor for this initial LOI is optional but encouraged

All letters of intent will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee for selection into a second round of full applications and prospective trainees will be notified by March 1.

Phase I Call for Letters of Interest

Training

The R38 supports up to four trainee positions per year, incorporating at least 12 months of protected time for research.

Trainees are expected to:

• Attend regularly scheduled seminars and journal clubs.
• Complete training in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).
• Provide annual progress reports during and after the period of support.

Benefits of the Program

• Resident Investigator Salary Costs: R38 will support 80% FTE for each resident trainee, per year. Stipend level will be commensurate with PGY levels and years of experience.
• Funds to Support Resident-Investigator Research: $20,000 per resident per year for supplemental resident research supplies. Supplies will be based upon each resident’s area of interests including, but not limited to, lab supplies, human subjects research costs, animal expenses, IRB fees, data sets, specimen processing, fees for core facility use, and other research-related costs. Each resident investigator will submit a detailed budget for approval by their Mentoring Committee and the Operations Committee.
• Funds to Support Resident-Investigator Conference Travel: Each trainee will receive $3,000 annually for travel expenses to attend or present research findings at domestic scientific conferences and to support short term courses or workshops to obtain research skills. Costs include hotel, meals, transportation, and registration fees.
• Increased competitiveness for URMC subspecialty fellowship programs
• Eligibility to apply for a new NIH early career award (K38 Stimulating Access to Research in Residency Transition Scholar)

Contact

For questions about the program and application information, please reach out to Stefanie Fingler, Director of Research Operations, at Stefanie_fingler@urmc.rochester.edu.