Mission

The Bay Area RaMP Program in Microbiome Sciences exists to increase potential for scientific advances by expanding the microbiome research workforce with well-trained, ethical scientists.

Our program trains post-baccalaureates who were unable to gain meaningful research experience during their undergraduate careers and develops mentors with skills to guide and support mentees in a supportive laboratory environment.

Program at-a-glance

The program offers a paid 10-month full-time research training experience for postbac scholars in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is designed to develop scholars' scientific and professional identity, knowledge of microbiome sciences, and technical skills necessary to conduct research.

Scholars are matched with a mentor and appointed to a lab within our network where they will receive hands-on training and support as they gain the capacity to independently conduct research. As part of a cohort, scholars will also participate in training and development activities where they will be exposed to a variety of research areas and methods, and professional skills and tools. Scholars collaborate with their advisor and mentor to create an individualized development plan that will guide their journey in the program, leveraging their experience to progress along their desired career path.

Scholars start in August with RIO, a three-week research immersion and orienation to prepare them to begin as research trainees. After RIO, scholars' day-to-day work will be in their appointed lab. Each month the cohort will gather for training and development activities, and cohort meetings. Scholars will also have opportunities to attend other scientific and professional events, such as conferences. The program culminates with the annual symposium where scholars will present their research.

Program Details

The Bay Area RaMP Program in Microbiome Sciences is designed for those who were unable to gain adequate research experience during their undergraduate careers, with a particular focus on those who transferred from community college prior to completing a four-year degree. Scholars engage in opportunities to develop practical laboratory and research skills, a strong conceptual understanding of microbiome form and function, and professional skills while exploring their unique scientific identity and future career paths.

Key to scholar success is a supportive network and laboratory environment. Participants join a cohort of 10 scholars and a network of scientists working across the San Francisco Bay Area. The program runs one cohort per year, and matches each scholar with their own mentor and advisor, whose research strengths and commitment to mentoring align with the mission and values of the program,  in labs located at:

• University of California, Berkeley

• Lawrence Berekely National Laboratory

• California State University, East Bay

• San Francisco State University

• University of California, San Francisco

Scholars commit to full-time participation for the duration of the 10-month program (August-June). The majority of their time will be spent working in their appointed lab with the support of their advisor (PI of lab) and mentor (lab member - typically a post-doctoral researcher, graduate student or other staff scientist). Scholars will learn the skills and methods needed to conduct research, and will collaborate with their mentor to select a research project that aligns with their interests and career goals. Guided by an individualized development plan, the scholar and mentor will center training and experiences that maximize the scholar's time in the program. Additionally, scholars will participate in cohort training and development activities including, a three-week research immersion and orientation (RIO), training and development workshops, cohort lab meetings, and an end of year symposium where they will present their research. Occasional field trips and other social gatherings will be organized by the program, and scholars are encouraged to initiate their own gatherings in order to develop relationships with others in the network.

To support scholars' ability to focus on full-time research, scholars receive an NSF-funded stipend and research support:

• One-time insurance/relocation stipend: $5,000 (August)

• Monthly stipend: $4,200 (September-June, $42,000 total)

• Research support funds: $10,000 (for expenses related to project, conference travel, etc.)

Microbiome Research

All plants and animals on Earth continually interact with microbial organisms (fungi, bacteria, and viruses). Although a small proportion of these microbes are pathogens that cause disease, the vast majority are either harmless to their hosts or are actually beneficial. The benefits that both plants and animals receive from the diverse microbial communities living in and on them (their so-called microbiomes) are broad–ranging from aiding in digestion and nutrition to providing critical defenses against pests and disease. As such, the study of microbiomes is a particularly exciting research avenue, because it is relevant to both basic science and understanding of biodiversity, and to the development of new applications in human health, conservation, and agricultural practice. To move from knowledge gained in research within the field to new therapeutics, technologies, and approaches that benefit society, it is critical to focus on building a broadly-trained, ethical workforce in the microbiome sciences.

This program is focused on training in four core research pillars:

1) Gaining insight into the ecological and evolutionary processes that  drive microbiome assembly and function

• Every microbiome is built through time, as new bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses arrive in and on hosts and either grow and establish there or die. How do hosts (be they humans or plant) recruit their microbiomes successfully? How much is accidental and how much is adaptation? How do hosts make sure their microbiome is the best one? How do they keep it that way over time, and what happens when things go wrong?

2) Application of large datasets and computational approaches to better characterize microbiomes in health and disease

• The human gut microbiome - like many others- can contain thousands of bacterial species, and the datasets we generate from sequencing many organisms can be vast. How do we make sense out of these large datasets, and how can we build and test our hypotheses in unbiased ways?

3) Development and application of new technologies for microbiome sciences

• The microbiome field is changing rapidly because of new technologies and approaches. How can we continue to move the field forward? What new knowledge can we gain from recent advances in microscopy? Sequencing? Metabolomics? What will the next big technological advancement be?

4) Use of model systems for microbiome research

• Model organisms are those around which the research community has come together to build knowledge in a way that allows each researcher's findings to be greater than the sum of their parts. In microbiome sciences, many different systems have been developed to understand different aspects of microbiome stability and function, but how do we know which of these findings are general to all microbiomes and when do we need to study these processes across many different hosts?

These pillars are key to translating basic knowledge into applied solutions.