Summer Research Experience Proves Valuable for Student and Mentor

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A Princeton University junior and the director of University of North Carolina McAllister Heart Institute’s research lab shared a Recovery Act-funded grant from the National Institutes of Health as well as a summer research experience.

During the summer of 2009, Brooke Russell got a taste of heart and vascular research by working in the lab of Dr. Cam Patterson.  Patterson got the benefit of Russell’s perspective – that of a young African American female – which he says helps to ensure diverse “bench to bedside” findings that impact large cross-sections of society.

“I think if we are really going to attack the problem of healthcare disparities then we need people who understand it from frontline experience,” Patterson says.  “So people like Brooke are going to help us understand why problems like healthcare disparities exist, why there are gaps in our treatment of minority populations, and what we can do to close those gaps.”

For Russell, a physics major and pre-med student, the summer experience was an opportunity to take what she is learning in the classroom and apply it in a real-world setting.

“I really wanted to delve deeper and get a feel for what life is like as a researcher and dive into heart science,” Russell says.   “It’s not just reading specific information in a textbook, but applying it really gives me a better feel for what’s going on and its greater significance.”

This desire to learn and experience is exactly what Patterson wants when he brings students into his lab

“I really see my lab as an incubator,” he says. “We bring people into the lab, teach them the principles of science, we help them to identify the important questions and then I like to see them run on their own and ask the questions they want to ask and develop their own research directions.” See Brooke in the lab

The ARRA grant through NIH that supported Russell’s summer experience was $20,000. Learn more>>