Kidney TREKS deadline approaches

Kidney TREKS is a program for medical students who want to learn about nephrology. Here are the components of the program from the website:

  • Attend the Mount Desert Island Biologic Laboratories “Origins of Renal Physiology” course for students, June 6-13, 2014. Tuition, travel stipend to Maine, room and board are paid by ASN.
  • Become connected with a nephrologist-mentor who will interact with the student over the course of medical school training, graduate school or postdoctoral fellowship.
  • Attend ASN Kidney Week during the 3rd or 4th year of medical school or graduate school with travel support (as a part of the ASN Program for Students and Residents).
  • Receive complimentary membership to the ASN with access to website resources for students.

To my mind, the first bullet point stands out as a once in a life-time opportunity. Mount Desert Island (by the way, best name ever: it’s a mountain, and a desert, and an island. Too bad they couldn’t get swamp and archipelago in there somehow) is a research lab where some of the seminal discoveries of renal physiology were made. My understanding is that the students have an opportunity to re-run some of the classic experiments with scientist mentors. Imagine a whole week of Kidney Science Camp.
I have not seen any reviews from participants from last year’s KidneyTreks but the reports from the fellow version make me want to re-do fellowship so I can go.
The deadline for applications is January 24th. Get to the link and apply now.
Imagine hiking around this beautiful island after learning the secretes of glomerular filtration.
Mount Desert Island Biologic Lab, home to the world’s nerdiest fence.