The REU: PR CLIMB

Continues Leading the Training of Undergraduate Students

https://reu-prclimb.weebly.com/
What started as a student-professor initiative between former UPR student Yahaira M. Cruz
and the then Assistant Professor Arthur D. Tinoco as an effort to overcome the efflux of young
scientific minds from Puerto Rico, has evolved into the NSF sponsored undergraduate summer
traineeship called REU: Puerto Rico Chemical Learning Integrated in Materials and Biomolecular
applications (REU: PR CLIMB). The program was originally funded for two years (NSF
#1560278) and based on its success has been renewed for an additional three years of funding
(NSF #1757365).
Each summer PR CLIMB provides 10 undergraduate students with high caliber
interdisciplinary research experiences and aims to inspire their interest in graduate programs in the
Natural Sciences, in particular in Chemistry. Also, this program offers information about the
Puerto Rican academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical job
markets as viable career options. A diverse set of research
laboratories participate in PR CLIMB, focusing on fundamental
studies on the engineering of materials and biomolecules for
potential applications in water purification, energy storage, sensing,
drug design, and drug delivery. All participants or PR CLIMBers,
as we like to call them, receive mentorship from the principal
investigator of the laboratories and a co-mentor in the form of a
senior graduate student or postdoctoral researcher. The principal
investigators include the program’s director Dr. Tinoco and Drs. Dr. Arthur D. Tinoco and
Yahaira M. Cruz
Vilmalí López, Torsten Stelzer, Marvin Bayro, Kai Griebenow,
Jorge Colón, Liz Díaz, Carlos Cabrera, Zhongfang Chen, José Rivera, Abel Baerga, and Eduardo
Nicolau. For the 2018 summer cycle, the program will continued to be directed by Dr. Tinoco,
who is now a tenured Associate Professor, with the support of the UPR graduate student
administrative assistant, José Alberto Santiago Espinoza.
During the course of the program, the PR CLIMBers participate in workshops with hands-
on experiences on modern chemical instrumentation. The workshops include topics in cell
culturing, MALDI TOF TOF, high resolution NMR spectroscopy, chromatography, peptide
synthesis/purification/identification, x-ray characterization, electrochemistry, nanoparticle
characterization, and surface analysis. The participants also engage in a seminar series in which
presentations on scientific writing, ethics in research, communication and presentation skills,
online resources, professional development, graduate studies and research fellowship
opportunities are offered. As part of this series, the students present their research plans via a flash
oral presentation designed for a general scientific audience. The participants have the unique
opportunity to visit a local pharmaceutical company such as the Eli Lilly and Company and also
Pfizer. At the closing ceremony, the participants present their results in a research poster
symposium that is evaluated by a panel of judges. The student earning the highest evaluation is
awarded full support to attend a national conference. To help students aspire to graduate studies
we have invited professionals from the Chemistry sectors of academia, industry, and medical
research to serve as guest speakers including Dr. Alan Saghatelian (Salk Institute for Biological
Studies), Dr. Jessica Mendez (Eli Lilly), Dr. Melinda Lull (St. John Fisher College Wegmans
 School of Pharmacy) and Dr. Irma Molina
(The VA Caribbean Healthcare System). They
have provided insight into their experience as
natural sciences graduate students and as
employees in their respective fields to
demonstrate the diverse possible career paths.
PR CLIMB has attracted a wide mix of
students from all over the United States with
the help of a dedicated team of faculty from
other universities that serve as liaisons. They
include Dr. Félix Román (UPR Mayaguez),
Dr. Antonio E. Alegría (UPR Humacao), Dr.
Christian L. Menéndez (UPR Cayey), Dr.
Raphael Raptis (Florida International
University), Dr. Andrei Jitianu (Lehman
College), Dr. Debbie Crans (Colorado State
University), Dr. Yolanda Small (York
College), Dr. Abel E. Navarro (Borough of
Manhattan Community College), Dr. Lourdes
E. Echegoyen (University of Texas El Paso),
and Dr. Elisa Tomat (University of Arizona).
We have made a strong effort to recruit
several students of low socioeconomic status
who would be most transformed by the
traineeship offered by PR-CLIMB. The
program operates, in part, based on the
feedback of the participants in order to
improve the overall mentorship provided and
to adapt to the ever changing professional
development needs of the participants.
PR CLIMB students have earned
accolades for their accomplishments. First
place prizes were received for posters
presented at the MeTRC and CSTEP
conferences. The participants from the first
The 2016 (top), 2017 (middle), and 2018 group photo of the two cycles of the program who won the best
REU: PR CLIMB team. poster prize at the closing ceremony, Martin
Kowaleff and Froylan Fernandez, received
travel awards by the NSF-REU Leadership Group to attend the spring editions of the American
Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition to give an oral lecture about their
research and their overall PR CLIMB experience. We are quite honored by their successes and
with the renewed funding we will continue to embrace the mission of the program and develop the
next generation of top tier scientific professionals.