Skip to main content

ASPIRE

Advancing Student Participation in Research Excellence (ASPIRE) is a program for rising high school seniors with a passion for medicine and research. This six-week program is held over the summer at Saint Louis University's Doisy Research Center.

Photo of two or three students at the sim center wokring together to learn new techniques
 

The dates for this program are flexible: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. between Monday through Friday, June 3 to Aug. 26. The application deadline is  Friday, April 26.

Discover the awe of science, and prepare for college and life success.

Program Benefits

  • One-on-one mentorship
  • Live the life of a scientist at work
  • Opportunity to attend and present at weekly lab meetings
  • Prepare an abstract and possibly a manuscript
  • Present at departmental research colloquium
  • Prizes for top scoring presentations
  • Mid-rotation evaluation
  • Certificate of completion 

Program Components

  • Introduction to research methodologies
  • Rigor and reproducibility in science
  • Hands-on experience in internationally recognized labs

Project Examples

  • Learn ELISA, qPCR, H&E, immunohistochemistry, serum chemistry analysis
  • Assessing heart and liver injury through immunohistochemistry
  • Observe basic science animal and cell culture work
  • Understand enzyme replacement and gene therapy for rare diseases like mucopolysaccharidosis
  • Understand iron metabolism and its modulation
  • Microbiota transplantation
  • Use of novel PROTECT system to assess Ischemia-reperfusion injury
  • Validating cholestatic injury in DREAM
  • Novel therapeutics for alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency
  • Lung injury prevention strategies
  • Prepare parenteral nutrition solution
  • Help understand and prepare organoids