Similar to the 1st research proposal, you will have to come up with an experimental design to address an overall cardiovascular scientific question. It will be a 2-pages (not including citations) proposal, spacing of 1.5 lines, font 11 and margin of 0.75 inch. Fonts can be either in Arial or Helvetica. You can cite as many reference as you need. That should be in another page outside of the two-page proposal. You have to check your format before submitting. Points will be deducted if you do not follow the requirement.
It will contain 3 major components:
1. Background I need to see a good description on the pathways/crosstalk/cell-cell interaction etc. If you are talking about a disease, you cannot just list out the diseases WITHOUT explaining the related mechanisms.
2. Knowledge gap and testable hypothesis
3. Specific aims (should be 2) There should be a sub-hypothesis for each aim. Under each aim, you should write a more in-depth experimental approach/design to test the hypothesis.
I used the specific aim template (see in this module) to illustrate how to put together your research proposal.
Grading criteria:
1. Background (Relevant information, building-up of argument, identifying the knowledge gap)
2. Understanding the science (Explaining the science correctly)
3. Hypothesis (Formulating a testable hypothesis based on the arguments. YOU HAVE TO STATE YOUR HYPOTHESIS!)
4. Approach (Employing the right methods, designing the right controls, addressing the hypothesis)
5. Overall clarity and logic
1. It is related to atherosclerosis or current CV medication. I would also appreciate if you can develop anything to connect heart failure or hypertension. But you CANNOT reuse your previous proposal.
2. The scientific foundation of this proposal HAS TO BE based on materials in the lectures and journal clubs. Things that you look at can be outside. However, “those things” should theoretically impact what we are learning in the class and therefore you want to test that.
3. The proposal will be developed by your own. If I can find any research proposal or abstract that contains a very similar idea in the same testing platform, organ or cell types, I will consider it as someone’s idea. Please do a proper search before initiating discussion with me on the topic. I am not going to tell you which direction to go. This is your responsibility and most of you have learnt it in your 1st proposal via frequent email conversations. Instead, I will comment on your aims and delivery once you have a proper draft.
4. You are also not allowed to make up any hypothetical biological pathway, compound, biologics, hormone… etc. It should be based on known knowledge on human biology.
5. With that said, it is fine if you look up additional published papers to propose beyond the core knowledge learnt in this class.
Deadline is May 18 at 5pm. You should email your proposal (in word document) to me. NO late submission is allowed. Not even late by 1 sec. And do not send in request to extend the deadline. It is announced more than 4 weeks prior to the deadline. From the 1st research proposal, you should already have learnt that extension or late submission is prohibited. You either start early to avoid any unexpected events, or do it last minute to allow unexpected event costing you the grade.
