R25 Grant Renewed for Additional Five Years

June 2, 2020

The MSU R25 Research Education Program grant, “First-Time Research Experience in Environmental Health Science,” was recently renewed for an additional five years. This National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) grant is co-directed by IIT-affiliated faculty members, Dr. James Luyendyk and Dr. William Atchison. The grant, which has an annual direct cost of $100,000, provides opportunities annually for nine undergraduate students to come to Michigan State University during the summer and participate in hypothesis-directed research in the labs of NIH-funded investigators, with a special emphasis in toxicology or environmental health science.

The grant has been responsible for launching the career of many young investigators into Ph.D. programs, both at MSU and elsewhere. Several students in the CMIB and EITS programs, started research through the initial iteration of this award, which is now starting its sixth-year of continuous funding. The grant emphasizes first-time experiences for rising sophomores or juniors at a point in their education where they have not yet committed to a particular career path. Students from underrepresented minority groups are especially recruited, with a large majority from Puerto Rico as well as the U.S. mainland. Additionally, preference is given to students from small, private universities which lack significant research opportunities on campus. The MSU R25 grant is administered through the Institute for Integrative Toxicology, which along with CVM and PDI, have been important contributors to institutional support for this award.

The Society of Toxicology recently recognized the MSU R25 program by providing supplemental funding in the amount of $6,250 in support of five students over the summer of 2020.