Griffin Rodgers, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), was a special guest during the 10th annual NIDDK Medical Student Research Symposium held earlier this month on the Vanderbilt University campus.
Rodgers presented a lecture and observed poster presentations by several medical students.
One hundred thirty-one medical students from 69 medical schools throughout the United States participated. The symposium is held each year at the conclusion of the Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes sponsored by the National Institutes of Health through the NIDDK and organized by the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center.
The program allows medical students to conduct research under the direction of an established scientist in the areas of diabetes, hormone action, physiology, islet cell biology or obesity at an institution with one of the NIDDK-funded Research Centers during the summer between the first and second year or second and third years of medical school.
“The NIDDK Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes gives talented scholars a true taste of research under highly skilled mentors,” Rodgers said.
“As student researchers working to improve public health, even for only a summer, we hope they come away with a better understanding of how a career in biomedical research helps people worldwide to live healthier lives. We hope they learn that it’s a career worth having and a career in which they can be successful.”
