Main Page

Research in Biomedical Sciences (Masters Research Rotation) - MSBS 593A

Finding a mentor:

Students find a research lab and mentor in one of the ways listed below. In all cases, students should contact the potential mentor(s) by Email. Remember to be appropriately formal in your Email and include a brief description of why you are contacting the potential mentor, why you are interested in their lab, when you hope to start the rotation, and something about yourself (undergraduate major, school, research experience, etc.). The Email should be several sentences; however, you should feel free to attach a resume. It is wise to contact several lab heads at once, although each potential mentor should receive a separate Email addressed specifically to them.

• A copy of your resume, if you have one, as an email attachment

• Several sentences (2 or 3) describing your career plans (you are writing to a busy person, brevity will be appreciated)

• Days of the week and times of day when you are available to participate in research

• The date on which you are you available to start

• Whether you are also interested in undertaking a thesis (don't bring it up if you are not)

1. A student might become interested in a particular lab after hearing the lab head give a lecture or seminar (eg. in Seminar in Biomedical Sciences, Oral Biology Research Seminar, etc.).  The student can contact the lecturer/seminar speaker directly and request to talk with them about the possibility of doing a rotation. 

2. A student with an interest in a particular topic might identify potential mentors by perusing faculty descriptions listed in the tracks of the Multidisciplinary PhD Program. The three primary tracks of the Multidisciplinary PhD Program are divided into subdisciplines so that students with an interest in infectious disease would first go to the III3 (Infection, Immunity and Inflammation) track and follow the link to the Infectious Disease subdiscipline. In the same way, a student with an interest in cancer would go to the MBGC track (Molecular Biology, Genetics and Cancer) and follow the link to the Cancer Biology subdiscipline. Each subdiscipline lists associated faculty and their interests, as well as links with further information. Students with an interest in dental research can look in the Oral Biology listings in the III3 track; perhaps by talking with the Dental Scholars advisor, Dr. Vince Tsiagbe.

3. Students can find more clinical research by looking at faculty in individual clinical science departments at NJMS (http://njms.rutgers.edu/departments/index.cfm); however, the rotation must involve some research and not simply be a shadowing experience. 

4. Faculty members from NJMS and RSDM are both appropriate mentors for a research rotation. In only exceptional circumstances will  a mentor outside of these faculty be approved, and it must be approved ahead of time by Dr. Lutz.