The Program:: The Marine Models in Biological Research program is an eight week intensive research experience for advanced undergraduates at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL).in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Students attend lectures and seminars, and conduct individual research projects under the guidance of faculty mentors drawn from institutions throughout the country.

The Research Environment: The Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research, education, and training in biology. It was established in 1888 as an institute where marine organisms were used as model systems in the study of cell biology, neurobiology, and embryology. During the summer the 200 year-round scientists and support staff of the MBL are joined by an additional 800 scientists and graduate and postdoctoral students from over 200 institutions throughout the world. The majority of the scientists in residence at the MBL use marine organisms as model systems for understanding basic processes in cell and molecular biology. Many studies have broad biomedical implications. In addition, the MBL's Ecosystem Center houses a large group of marine ecologists, microbiologists, and population geneticists. Scientists are attracted to MBL as well by the opportunity to collaborate with investigators at the other scientific institutions in Woods Hole. These include the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the United States Geological Survey, and the Woods Hole Research Center (devoted to research in ecology and environmental policy). In the small village of Woods Hole, this concentration of scientific institutions results in a scientific community unparalleled in the world.

Research Facilities: The MBL houses a number of unique research facilities. These include a state-of-the-art Marine Resources Center, which provides for the latest approaches in husbandry and mariculture of marine organisms, the NIH-supported BioCurrents Research Center, advanced equipment for light microscopy combined with computer imaging, and the MBL/WHOI library, which is one of the most complete science libraries in the world. There are numerous opportunities to attend a variety of seminars and lectures. The MBL hosts many educational courses which run throughout the summer.Those courses draw their instructors from leading researchers in the respective fields and each offers a daily lecture or seminar series which is open to the scientific community at large. The MBL Friday Night Lecture Series brings in speakers of particular note who are of interest to a wider audience. Additionally, a number of courses and groups sponsor informal evening or lunch-time seminars.

The Program: Students attend selected lectures in this and other courses as well as research seminars specifically designed for MMBR participants. However, the major portion of each student's time will be dedicated to an individual research project under the direction of one of the participating faculty. Students will have the opportunity to interact with scientists from around the world, to be introduced to the latest research technologies, and to experience first-hand the intensity, enthusiasm, and excitement for which the MBL summer experience is known.

Eligibility: Undergraduate student participants will be supported with National Science Foundation funds and must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions. An undergraduate student is a student who is enrolled in a degree program (part-time or full-time) leading to a bachelor's degree. Students who are transferring from one institution to another and are enrolled at neither institution during the intervening summer may participate. High school graduates who have not yet enrolled and students who have received their bachelor's degrees and are no longer enrolled as undergraduates generally are not eligible.

To apply:  The deadline for applications is March 1, 2004. Applications will be evaluated after the March deadline and successful applicants will be notified beginning in April , at which time additional registration and housing information will be provided. Applications received after the deadline will be considered if space is still available. Click onto the application included with this web site.

Selection of students: Upon applying to the program, each student must submit short essays describing his or her reasons for wanting to take the course, his or her expectations, and any specific research areas of interest, as well as a transcript, and two letters of reference. The program directors determine from those materials which applicants appear most likely to be successful in and gain the most benefit from this type of program. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Most competitive applicants are those that have completed two or three years at an undergraduate institution, with a major in a science. Students are selected based on their academic credentials and letters, with the aim of ensuring a diversity of students with respect to race, gender, geography, and academic background. Students are matched with faculty mentors based on, course work, experience, and/or expressed research interest. A particular effort is made each year to select at least some students who come from smaller colleges and who have had no prior research experience. For example in past years, students from Lycoming College, Colby-Sawyer College, Clark University, North Carolina A&T University, Bucknell, Hope College, College of Charleston, University of Texas at El Paso, and Fairfield University have participated in the program

Acceptance and Mentor Assignments: Notices of acceptance into the program are sent to applicants beginning in the first week of March. After the students confirm their participation in the program, they receive by mail a schedule of orientation activities, as well as a roster of all student and research mentor participants in the program and information on the MBL, including travel and housing. The program co-directors then make tentative assignments of each student to a research mentor. These assignments take into account any preferences for particular research areas that the students express in their applications and previous research experiences that they may have had. A synopsis of the students background is sent to the proposed mentor for review and approval and the mentor is instructed to contact the student by e-mail and/or phone to provide the student with background information and materials to be read to prepare the student for the research project.

Program Activities: Orientation begins on the Wednesday evening in the second week in June, when the students meet for dinner, introductions and a review of the program administrative details. During the next two days of that week, the students meet their mentors in their respective laboratories and are taken on tours of the major core facilities at the MBL to show them what kinds of support services are available and how they operate. These tours include the library and its associated computer and electronic database services, the Central Microscopy Facility, the Marine Resources Center, and General Use Equipment Rooms. Additionally, there is a presentation from the health and safety administrator of the MBL to the group to inform them of procedures for the use and disposal of potentially harmful or toxic items, the safety systems that are in place to deal with any accidents, and the special concerns related to seawater tanks that drain into the surrounding harbors. Also scheduled during those two days are two to fours hours of cell biology overview lectures presented by the program co-directors to prepare the students for attending many of the lectures and seminars at the MBL. Other specialized tutorials may also be arranged for those students who want to learn more about certain techniques, such as light microscopy.. On Sunday night a group dinner is held for students to become acquainted with each other and those program mentors who choose to attend. At some time during the summer the students may also be offered tours of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and a Sea Education Association research vessel. Both of those organizations also have undergraduate programs and information about them is provided to the students during the tours.
On the first Monday of the program, the students begin in their respective laboratories. They also begin attending lectures in some of the MBL summer courses such as Physiology, Neurobiology, Neural Systems and Behavior, and Embryology, which all begin the same week as the MMBR program as well as seminars in the Neuroscience seminar series and the Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton seminar series. The lectures are selected by the program co-directors for their value in presenting significant research areas and techniques in cell biology. Each Wednesday there is lunch seminar arranged by the program co-directors specifically for the MMBR students, during which an MBL investigator talks to the students about the value of his or her marine model to broader research questions and presents some of his or her research observations at a level appropriate for undergraduates. Every Friday afternoon there is a group research and discussion meeting. At the first one, each student gives a brief overview of his or her research project, consisting of a statement of the question or problem being investigated and the organism being used. Subsequent Friday meetings are used for a variety of purposes. These include hearing a research presentation by an MMBR student from a previous summer, to give the students a view of what can be accomplished and what they will be expected to do at the end of the program. Since the second year of the program in 1997, there has always been at least one MMBR from a previous summer who has returned (though support provided by the mentor) to continue his or her research and is willing to do such a presentation. Additionally, the Friday meetings are used to discuss with the students topics such as, "How research is funded," "Applying to graduate school," and "Applying to medical school with the objective of doing biomedical research." The latter two presentation have in the past been done by Roger Sloboda, Ph.D., former Graduate School Dean at Dartmouth, and Bruce Furie, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, who conducts biomedical research at both his year-round laboratory at the MBL and at Harvard. After the first week, the students and mentors settle into the routine of the schedule which includes frequent morning lectures, a Wednesday brown bag lunch, Friday afternoon research seminar, and Friday evening lecture, with the remainder of the time devoted to laboratory research. (Click here to see a sample week schedule)

Housing: Room and board are paid by the MMBR program. The MBL maintains dormitory housing for summer students. The dormitories are on the MBL campus, right on Eel Pond in Woods Hole and a stone's throw from the ocean. The rooms are shared, and the MMBR students are usually assigned rooms together. The rooms are not luxurious, falling somewhere between summer camp style housing and Motel Six. But you can't beat the setting!

What to Bring: Besides clothes (including some warm sweaters and rain gear), a beach towel, alarm clock, bicycle or roller blades, and extension cord. A fan and stereo are nice as well. There are laundry facilities and a refrigerator available in the basement of the dorm. There is an awesome bike path running along the water from Woods Hole to Falmouth, perfect for running, biking, and roller blading. And the MBL has its own beach.

Finding your way to Woods Hole: You can bring a car if you wish, but parking in the town of Woods Hole is very expensive because there is really nowhere to put a car. If you wish to bring a car but cannot afford to pay an exorbitant fee, you may park in a remote lot and take the shuttle into town for free. Parking permits are available at Swope when you arrive. But a car is certainly not necessary, and most likely will sit unused in the parking lot most of the summer. Directions to Woods Hole, a highway map and a Woods Hole map are all available under "public/media interest" on the MBL web site (http://www.mbl.edu/).

If you plan to arrive by plane, you should fly into Logan airport in Boston. There is bus service directly from in front of each of the terminals at Logan to within walking distance of MBL in Woods Hole. Plan on spending around $35 round trip for a bus ticket. The bus schedule is available on the web at http://www.bonanzabus.com/logboswh.htm. If you arrive by bus, the bus stops at the far end of town (about 1/3 mile) from MBL. It is an easy walk if you have packed lightly or if your suitcase has wheels. There is a taxi out of Falmouth, but it is hardly worth calling for 1/3 mile

For further information, please contact:

Carole Browne, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109 

E-mail: browne@wfu.edu
Phone: 336-758-5318
Fax: 336-758-6008

Michael Tytell, Ph.D.
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC 27157

E-mail: tytellm@wfu.edu 
Phone: 336-716-2043
Fax: 336-716-4534

Link to the MMBR Homepage