Laboratory rotations (“rotations”) are a key component of the BBIP training experience, and they serve several purposes. The primary purpose is enrichment of student training. Rotations provide students with training in different methods, techniques, scientific questions, and approaches than they would receive in their primary mentor’s lab, and especially, provide students broad-based laboratory training in biomedical methods and perspectives. Rotations allow students to “sample” aspects of biomedical science that may be outside their primary research interests, to gain practical familiarity with various skills, paradigms, and science questions.

Students enrolled in the BBIP Training Program are required to complete two rotations. The students are graduate students in Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS).

Rotations are normally carried out during the 2nd and 3rd years of graduate training, typically in the summer. For students appointed to year-long funding slots (T32 or Grad College), rotations can be done any time while they are funded.

Rotations are completed in the research laboratories of biomedical faculty and occasionally, in the labs of behavioral/interface faculty.

The biomedical mentor assists the student with identifying a project that will enhance the student’s skills in biomedical sciences. Rotation plans must be approved by the BBIP Executive Committee (there is a formal process for this, which the students will follow). Students may or may not have an independent project during a rotation, and publications may stem from their rotation experience, but this is not required. The mentor is expected to meet with the student weekly or biweekly and to include the student in regular laboratory meetings. Should an opportunity arise for the student to present results of the work (i.e. as a poster at a regional or national meeting), mentors will be asked to give the typical feedback needed for preparing this.

At the end of the rotation, a written evaluation of the student’s performance is completed by the lab rotation mentor. Also, the student completes a written evaluation of the lab rotation. (The program provides standard forms for both of these evaluations.)

Students appointed to year-long funding slots will complete rotations while being supported by these slots. Other students will be given priority for funding support in the summer after their 2nd and 3rd years. This summer support is competitive, but the program is normally able to support all or most of the students who apply for summer support for rotations.

A typical rotation is15-20 hours/week, for 6-8 weeks. Trainees and mentors together determine the best management of the time on the rotation.

Students may or may not have an independent project during a rotation; this depends on the nature of the science in the lab, what projects the PI has ongoing, etc. The typical experience would be for a student to join an ongoing project and be part of the team working on that project.

Typical rotation projects can include observing ongoing lab work, training in use of lab skills or specialized techniques, e.g., fMRI data analysis, working with genetic data, performing lab assays (e.g., ELISAs, PCRs, flow cytometry), or working on specific projects. Some specific projects have included: 

• Analysis of digital microscopy images to determine the impact of pro-inflammatory cytokines on developing neurons.

• Collection of tissue samples from a cohort of mice that were exposed to stress to understand the impacts on telomere biology.

• Learning how to use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to induce “reversible lesions” in human brain cortex, and study the effects on cognitive and behavioral functioning. 

• Using large datasets from the Iowa Neurological Patient Registry to investigate brain-behavior relationships for various cognitive and emotional functions.

No. This depends on the nature of the science and what kind of project the student participates in, and while it is not expected that students would publish a scientific paper based on their rotation work, this is possible and has happened for our students in the past.

Prior to rotating, students will typically have completed the BBIP core course that physiology of bodily systems and stress effects on these systems, and a basic biology or neuropsychology course. Typically, psychology graduate students have outstanding statistical training, which is valuable in the rotations and will allow the students to contribute to the science in the rotation labs.

The training benefits are clear for the students but mentors can also benefit in many ways including:

• Sophisticated theoretical and statistical skills of the BBIP PBS students.

• PBS students are highly competitive trainees and bring a high degree of professionalism to their work.

• The interchange can spawn new ideas, or provide a different approach to ongoing work in the mentor’s lab.

• Often there are collaborations that develop between the biomedical mentor and the student’s primary mentor that can result in future publications and grant opportunities.

•Labs with a greater focus on basic science approaches and/or lab members with basic science backgrounds can benefit from the clinical perspective that the BBIP students will bring to the research project and/or to the other lab members for the period of the rotation.

• Research groups with a non-psychology clinical focus (i.e. cancer, emergency room) can benefit from the psychological and brain science perspective brought by the students.