CSUN CIRM COMPASS Training Program (N-COMPASS)

The main focus of the CSUN CIRM COMPASS Training Program (N-COMPASS) is heavily weighted on goal-oriented academic and practical laboratory training experiences in stem cell biology and stem cell-based patient therapies. Our program is integrated with educational, ethical, and guidance features for culturally diverse early-career undergraduate students. Our internship-host institutions provide mentors who are world leaders in fundamental stem cell research and therapeutic translational applications. We have both industry and academic partners that will provide hands-on training in embryonic and adult or cell type-specific stem cell biology, gene therapy, and targeted research in human disease, spanning the basic to translational investigative spectrum. Our partnerships achieve all of the major COMPASS Program objectives including 1) training laboratory personnel in current stem cell research techniques, policy, and ethics, 2) introducing community outreach, patient advocacy, and career counseling for future stem cell-based therapies, and 3) facilitating the entry of an ethnically and culturally diverse student population into the emerging world of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Our training program will provide CIRM trainees with opportunities to study the latest advances in stem cell biology, present their own work in settings in which they can obtain constructive feedback, interact with their peers in formal and informal forums, to meet leaders in the field, interact with patients, and to develop their career potential through advisement and mentoring. Students in COMPASS will experience three years of cohorted academic support including ten-week summer internships for two consecutive years. Host-internship mentors will undergo DEI and Critical Mentorship training prior to matching them with academically supported and prepared COMPASS trainees. The majority of intern time will be spent on laboratory research. Trainees will learn stem cell and essential analysis techniques such as microscopy, cell sorting, and good laboratory practices in the internship-host lab and affiliated cores. Their projects will be discussed and chosen in partnership with the lab mentor, who will pair trainees with more advanced senior graduate or post-doctoral students working in the area of the trainee’s project. These hands-on experiences will be supplemented by academic year participation in career counseling, community outreach, patient advocacy, and by formal and informal mentoring by home and host-institution faculty and peers. A major purpose of our inter-institutional training program is to provide an opportunity for engaged, interested, and successful trainees to gain the necessary skills and qualifications to springboard into careers in stem cell research that spans the spectrum, from basic studies to translational approaches to stem cell-based patient therapies, in academia and industry.