REU Site: Comparative Animal Model Approaches to Regeneration and Aging

This REU Site award to the MDI Biological Laboratory, located in Bar Harbor, ME, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2026–2028. Each summer, undergraduate students will conduct independent, mentored research projects focused on understanding how living things repair and renew themselves after injury and as they age. Students will work alongside experienced scientists using a diverse set of animal models. Comparitive studies using these animals provide students with a uniquely broad perspective on the biology of healing and aging across the animal kingdom. The program places special emphasis on recruiting students from primarily undergraduate institutions, community colleges, and campuses with limited research infrastructure, broadening participation in science and helping build and strengthen the STEM workforce. In addition to their laboratory research, students participate in workshops on bioinformatics, advanced microscopy, and science communication, as well as a Career Snapshot Series that exposes them to a wide range of scientific career paths in academia, industry, policy, and beyond. Students will learn how research is conducted, and present the results at a student symposium. Assessment of this program will be conducted through pre- and post-program surveys based on the BIO REU URSSA common assessment template, along with long-term tracking of student career outcomes. Students should apply to the REU site using NSF ETAP (Education and Training Application: https://etap.nsf.gov). The training students will receive is aligned with the NSF priority in Biotechnology. The scientific focus of this REU site is comparative regenerative and aging biology, drawing on the complementary strengths of non-mammalian animal model systems. Research groups at MDIBL investigate questions spanning kidney regeneration in zebrafish, limb and heart regeneration in axolotls, stem cell regulation and aging in killifish, neuronal regeneration in zebrafish, nucleolar organization in neurons using C. elegans, tissue repair mediated by macrophages in salamanders, microRNA regulation of stem cell fate in Drosophila, and the role of cytoplasmic germ granules in germline immortality and pluripotency. Students receive individualized mentorship from thirteen faculty investigators and two core facility directors, with each project leveraging MDIBL's state-of-the-art Light Microscopy Facility — equipped with two-photon confocal, spinning disk, super-resolution, and lightsheet microscopes — and the Comparative Genomics and Data Science Core for bioinformatics support. Professional development is woven throughout the program via the Communicating Science course, which covers scientific writing, poster and oral presentation skills, and outreach communication, and via a Responsible Conduct of Research workshop covering data management, ethical authorship, and research integrity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2547299 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Dustin Updike | Institution: Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, BAR HARBOR, ME | Award Amount: $464,952 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2547299 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2547299.html