2023 IDBI-SPUR

The Saint Louis University (SLU) Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (SLU-IDBI) Summer Program in Undergraduate Research (IDBI-SPUR) was run in two formats in 2023 for undergraduate SLU students: 

1) full-time ($6,000 stipend, 40 hours per week, 10 weeks) 

2) part-time ($15/hour, 20 hours per week, 8 weeks)

We had 11 applications for the full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellowship and were able to fund 4 full-time IDBI-SPUR Fellows thanks to the generous scholarship funding from the DeNardo Education and Research Foundation (DeNardo IDBI-SPUR fellows). This was an 36% acceptance rate. 

We had 35 applications for the part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellowship and were able to fund 20 part-time IDBI-SPUR Fellows. 6 of those 20 applications were generously funded by the SLU Scholarly Undergraduate Research Grants and Experiences (SURGE) program (SURGE IDBI-SPUR), while the remaining 14 were funded via a combination of internal and external funding awarded to IDBI Faculty Mentors. This was a 57% acceptance rate.

Below is a table highlighting the IDBI-SPUR participants for 2023. Please send edits/corrections to blythe.janowiakmulligan@slu.edu.

IDBI-SPUR Fellows participated in two cohort events in 2023:

1. Beginning of IDBI-SPUR cohort event 1 (May 30, 2023): safety training, guidance on importance of recordkeeping, faculty mentor lightning talks, and a social gathering (ice cream social).

2. Midpoint of IDBI-SPUR cohort event 2 (July 5, 2023): group picnic lunch, games & networking, and a field trip to the Drug Discovery Core, a core facility run by the IDBI that contains shared equipment used for drug discovery, highlighting some of the research projects being aided by the core.

Below are some photos from the 2nd cohort event:

The second annual IDBI Research Symposium was held on September 8, 2023. All IDBI-SPUR Fellows were encouraged to participate, while paid Fellows were required to participate. 

Below are some photos from the symposium.