Mayo Magazine

The Wave of the Future

For 10 weeks every summer, dozens of college students from around the country have the opportunity to pursue their burgeoning interest in science through Mayo Clinic's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, or SURF , as it's called. Working side by side with veteran researchers in Mayo Clinic laboratories, SURF students pick up new skills and techniques while learning to think independently and working on projects with real-world consequences.

SURF offers students the opportunity to do cutting-edge research that will ultimately translate into medical discoveries to help patients," says Bruce F. Horazdovsky, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic's SURF Program director. "At Mayo, we believe the SURF experience is where discovery begins for many young researchers, and it gives us the opportunity to help transform a young person's love of science into a direct career path."

Case in point: In 1998, Andrew B. West, Ph.D., was a SURF student at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in the lab of Todd E. Golde, M.D., whose area of interest is Alzheimer's disease. "I've always thought the brain was the most challenging thing about medicine," says Dr. West. "I was set on going to medical school and then going back later to get the Ph.D. degree, but working with Dr. Golde helped me to see that research was my true focus. Without SURF and his encouragement, I would have taken the wrong career path."

After graduating from Alma College in Michigan, Dr. West returned to Mayo Graduate School to earn the Ph.D. degree in molecular neuroscience in 2003. He's currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on Parkinson's disease, and he's doing what he loves. "As a SURF student, I saw the emphasis Mayo places on research and how it makes a difference to patients," says Dr. West. "For a lot of us, that is our career goal."

The Right Fit

Many universities and medical schools across the country support SURF students, adapting the program to suit their academic mission and objectives. Since SURF began at Mayo Clinic in 1991, more than 1,000 undergraduates have participated in the program at Mayo's three sites in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona. The program is very competitive. In 2006, Mayo Clinic received 715 applications. Of these, 103 students were selected.

Dr. Horazdovsky believes Mayo Clinic offers its SURF students a particularly rich research experience as a result of the selection process. "We don't choose a student just because he or she has an excellent academic record and then arbitrarily assign them to a lab," he says.

Mayo Clinic looks at students' laboratory skills and research interests and matches those with a faculty member whose research program will best complement the student's interests. "Our principal investigators across all three Mayo sites are active participants in the selection process. They want students who will jump right into a project and augment their research programs," says Dr. Horazdovsky. "We think it makes the SURF experience more enriching for the student and for Mayo Clinic."

Psst! Science Isn't Surfing

SURF students may occasionally feel like they're wiping out while trying to ride a big wave. Rachel Diaz, a 2006 SURF student in the lab of David F. Smith, Ph.D., at Mayo Clinic Arizona, describes her first attempts at doing intricate pipetting, a task that involves transferring precise amounts of liquid with a straw-like instrument. She and one of her mentors, Viravan Prapapanich, Ph.D., dissolved into laughter at her initial efforts. "These are the kind of moments I really enjoy," says Ms. Diaz. "You can only learn by doing."

In reality, though, the world of scientific research bears little resemblance to the adrenaline-pumping pursuit of surfing. Young people with an interest in research often see it portrayed in the media as a series of eureka moments and big Nobel-Prize-winning discoveries. The SURF Program helps students see science instead as an incremental process that's exhilarating in its own way.

Here's how Anna Svatikova, Ph.D., explains it: In 1999, she worked as a SURF student in the lab of Franklyn G. Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D., at Mayo Clinic Rochester. "Dr. Prendergast is a great mentor," she says. "And in his lab, I came to understand the real significance of research — that small results grow into meaningful answers through integration and collaboration. After that summer, I was confident that medical research was what I wanted to do."

Dr. Svatikova graduated from Luther College in Iowa and returned to Mayo Graduate School, earning the Ph.D. degree in 2005 in molecular neuroscience. "For my Ph.D. thesis, I looked at how normal and disturbed sleep may be implicated in heart disease and neurological events, such as stroke," she explains. Dr. Svatikova is now working on a medical degree at McMaster University Medical School in Ontario, Canada.

Growing an Idea

Not unlike the discovery process it hopes to inspire in young researchers, Mayo Clinic's SURF Program has itself been incremental and collaborative. More than 20 years ago, it began with a simple question: "Instead of the research labs at Mayo Clinic individually hiring summer students from the Rochester area, why not band together and attract topnotch students from around the country using a national recruitment plan?" asked Larry R. Pease, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Immunology and a founder and longtime champion of SURF.

From its roots in the Department of Immunology, SURF has grown into a robust training program administered by Mayo Graduate School. It has more than fulfilled one of its primary objectives — to recruit the nation's best students to Mayo Clinic. Today, there are 11 M.D./Ph.D. students, 33 Ph.D. students, 19 M.D. students, 18 residents, six research fellows, two research associates and four senior associate consultants at Mayo Clinic who were former SURF students. "The SURF Program now impacts just about every education and research enterprise at Mayo Clinic," says Dr. Horazdovsky.

The SURF Program is an excellent pipeline for increasing diversity and for encouraging Hispanic, Native American and African American students to become scientists. It also draws students from a range of places and backgrounds. Dr. Svatikova, for example, is from Slovakia (and her first love was music). "Fortunately, my music teacher was honest about my talent, so I put my heart into science," she says. Dr. Horazdovsky recalls one of his first SURF students, Craig Rackley, now a student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, who grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma. "He knew what a hard day's work was," recalls Dr. Horazdovsky.

SURF students don't just come from large, well-known universities. Many apply from small liberal arts colleges where strong mentors and counselors urge students to stretch. Dr. West credits Joe D. Beckmann, Ph.D., the chair of biochemistry at Alma College, with sparking his interest in SURF. "Dr. Beckmann has an excitement about science that comes across to everyone in his classes."

One of the most important objectives of SURF is to enhance the learning environment at Mayo Clinic — or as Dr. Horazdovsky puts it, to unleash some "unbridled enthusiasm" in the research realm at Mayo Clinic for 10 weeks every summer. It appears this objective is being met.

"My lab looks forward to the SURF students," says Dr. Smith. "One of the paybacks for me and my colleagues is having a young person with all that excitement of a whole world of research beginning to open up to them. They say things like, 'Wow, this is not just a lab exercise' or 'I'm actually doing this on my own.' Their enthusiasm keeps us energized and reminds us how much we love what we do."

Inspiring the Next Generation of Scientists

The energy that drives Mayo Clinic's SURF Program comes from benefactors who understand a basic concept: Scientific discovery is the foundation of medical breakthroughs. These benefactors see the wisdom of supporting young people with a love of science at a time when the students will most benefit from mentorship with Mayo Clinic researchers.

SURF benefactors come from around the country — from Los Angeles, Calif., to Vienna, Va. — and although they don't know one another, they have a common bond. Through their generosity, they're shaping the future of science and ensuring advances in medicine that we can only imagine today.

One exemplar in this forward-thinking group is the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. In 2004, the foundation established a generous endowment to support stipends for five SURF students each summer in Mayo Clinic laboratories. This endowment gives grateful students the support they need to succeed.

Many SURF students correspond with benefactors to express their appreciation. Shruthi Naik, a 2005 Mayo Clinic SURF student, wrote to Wilbur Laughlin, whose gift has supported several SURF students. She said, "As an international student from a small university, I can plainly say my experience in the SURF Program has been one of the most important of my life. It's been exciting, frustrating, exhilarating and enlightening — and in the end it's allowed me to learn what research is really about. Your support has had a tremendous impact on me and the other SURF students."

One final note: As proof of how benefactors sustain Mayo Clinic's ability to attract the best and brightest students through the SURF Program, Ms. Naik recently began Ph.D. studies at Mayo Graduate School.