A program at SUNY Upstate is giving hopeful researchers and doctors a unique opportunity to spend a year strengthening their research skills in a real lab environment, preparing them for future research-focused doctoral degree programs. The Postbaccalaureate Research and Education Program at Upstate Medical University (known as PREP-Up) allows accepted students to get paid a salary to work in a lab for a year as apprentice scientists. The program aims to provide these experiences for students who may have not had the opportunity to gain lab experience during their undergraduate studies, or are from underrepresented groups in the biomedical field.

Co-directors Alaji Bah, Ph.D, Yingxi Lin, Ph.D. and Bruce Knutson, Ph.D. have developed and guided the program since founding it in 2021.

From left to right: Co-chair of PREP-Up Dr. Bruce Knutson, with students Haleigh Pascual, Kairo Baylor and Lou Adebiyi.

This year the program has eight participants; four incoming students and four who are returning for a second year of PREP-Up. Students attend research seminars, present and participate in a student journal club, present their work, and participate in discussions on research career development and how to apply to graduate school. Students are given ample opportunities to interact directly with many of our faculty and graduate students. 

Dr. Knutson says this program is more needed than ever, citing the impact of COVID-19 on undergrad students. During the pandemic, many students lost out on in-person opportunities to gain their first experiences working in a laboratory setting. The skills gained from this experience leave a large gap on a lot of students’ resumes when applying for MD and MD/Ph.D. programs. 

“I’d been on medical track, with a goal to pursue medicine but didn’t get to do research in undergrad,” says PREP-Up student Lou Adebiyi.

PREP-Up student Lou Adebiyi is preparing to apply to joint MD/Ph.D programs after gaining more experience in the lab this year.

“Then COVID happened, and I wasn’t able to get into labs.” This is Adebiyi’s second year with PREP-Up, and he’s using this year to prepare to apply for an MD/Ph.D. program by working in Dr. David Auerbach’s lab in the department of Pharmacology at Upstate. He’s researching the impact of a drug used for epileptic patients. “A lot of times this drug is very effective at treating seizures, but it gives them the risk of cardiac events and heart attacks, so we want to figure out why that is the case.”

Haleigh Pascual is another student who wasn’t able to get lab experience due to the pandemic, and is a current PREP-Up success story. After working with Dr. Knutson in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology studying a mutation in genes that causes Treacher Collins syndrome, she’s now headed to SUNY Upstate’s Biomedical PhD program  this fall. 

After taking part in the PREP-Up program, Haleigh Pascual was accepted to and will be attending SUNY Upstate’s Biomedical Ph.D. program.

Pascual says one of the biggest takeaways from her experience in the program is to never give up. “It can be frustrating when your experiment fails but you just have to keep going.” She’s interested in continuing to study biochemistry, and also planning on doing a rotation in the pharmacology lab this fall.

Kairo Baylor discovered a desire to add research into her plans to become a physician during her undergrad. “I had to do a senior thesis; 60+ page paper, conduct my own experiment, figure out the protocols and everything. From that process, I realized, ‘this is kind of fun,’ especially when what I was doing had a clinical relevance. That’s when I realized I would want to combine what I was initially pursuing with experiments; I didn’t want to give that up.”

Baylor has spent the past year working in Dr. Knutson’s lab and has returned for a second year to continue her research on RNA polymerase I transcription while she applies for MD/Ph.D. programs. She credits the program with preparing her with useful research skills. One of the most important? Troubleshooting when your experiments go wrong. “I’m in that process right now of trying to figure out what’s wrong with my experiments. That’s something that everyone has to go through.”

All three agree that the program has provided them with invaluable experience. “For me, it was a real life-changer- I knew I wanted to pursue medicine, I didn’t doubt it, but there was a part that I felt like I was missing which was the critical thinking skills, the investigational aspect of it,” says Adebiyi. He says he’s excited by the idea of being able to identify a problem, and have the skills needed to find a solution. “I wanted to get that skill; to ask the question and investigate.”

Kairo Baylor is using her time as a PREP-Up student to develop research skills needed for MD/Ph.D. programs.

Dr. Knutson says he hopes through additional funding, they can grow the program to be able to provide even more students with the opportunity to gain valuable research experience. “It would be great to get more support for the program- there’s a lot of labs that want to do something like this- it’s just a matter of getting the money.” He’s hoping an NIH grant will be able to fill some of the funding gaps currently carried by the research labs. “Then you’re truly not looking at your students as dollar signs, you can be a little more on the mentorship side.”

About the PREP-Up Program:

The program’s focus is to strengthen the research skills and academic competitiveness of program participants in an effort to help meet the critical need for diverse investigators in basic and translational research, particularly individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Students accepted into the program will work as apprentice scientists under the supervision of an established biomedical scientist and participate in courses for skill development. Each student will be provided a salary and benefits for the 12-month period as well as the opportunity of taking two full-credit courses free of charge.

Students will attend research seminars, present and participate in a student journal club, present their work, and participate in discussions on research career development and how to apply to graduate school. Students are given ample opportunities to interact directly with many of our faculty and graduate students. 

Applicants should be undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in good academic standing and are majors in a biomedically related field, such as chemistry, biology, neuroscience, microbiology, etc.

Applicants must have a strong interest in pursuing a career in basic biomedical research, and are expected to pursue rigorous, research-focused doctoral degree programs (e.g., PhD or MD/PhD) in biomedical fields. Individuals who graduated within the last two years are also eligible.

The main criteria for the selection of students will be personal scholarship, academic excellence, and the match of applicant interests with those of participating SUNY Upstate Medical University biomedical faculty members.

If you’re interested in learning more about the PREP-Up program or applying for 2023, you can find more information here- https://www.upstate.edu/grad/programs/prep-up.php