Internship Experiences Contribute to Confident Career Decision Making for Doctoral Students in the Life Sciences.

The Graduate Student Internships for Career Exploration (GSICE) program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), offers structured training and hands-on experience through internships for a broad range of PhD-level careers. The GSICE program model was successfully replicated at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Here, we present outcome data for a total of 217 PhD students participating in the UCSF and UC Davis programs from 2010 to 2015 and 2014 to 2015, respectively. The internship programs at the two sites demonstrated comparable participation, internship completion rates, and overall outcomes. Using survey, focus group, and individual interview data, we find that the programs provide students with career development skills, while increasing students' confidence in career exploration and decision making. Internships, in particular, were perceived by students to increase their ability to discern a career area of choice and to increase confidence in pursuing that career. We present data showing that program participation does not change median time to degree and may help some trainees avoid "default postdocs." Our findings suggest important strategies for institutions developing internship programs for PhD students, namely: including a structured training component, allowing postgraduation internships, and providing a central organization point for internship programs

Internship Experiences Contribute to Confident Career Decision Making for Doctoral Students in the Life Sciences.

The Graduate Student Internships for Career Exploration (GSICE) program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), offers structured training and hands-on experience through internships for a broad range of PhD-level careers. The GSICE program model was successfully replicated at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Here, we present outcome data for a total of 217 PhD students participating in the UCSF and UC Davis programs from 2010 to 2015 and 2014 to 2015, respectively. The internship programs at the two sites demonstrated comparable participation, internship completion rates, and overall outcomes. Using survey, focus group, and individual interview data, we find that the programs provide students with career development skills, while increasing students' confidence in career exploration and decision making. Internships, in particular, were perceived by students to increase their ability to discern a career area of choice and to increase confidence in pursuing that career. We present data showing that program participation does not change median time to degree and may help some trainees avoid "default postdocs." Our findings suggest important strategies for institutions developing internship programs for PhD students, namely: including a structured training component, allowing postgraduation internships, and providing a central organization point for internship programs

Lack of association between apolipoprotein E genotype and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuro-degenerative disorder with both sporadic and familial forms. Approximately 20% of autosomal dominant ALS is caused by mutations in the Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene. The causes of the remaining forms of ALS are unknown. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is a known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), another neuro-degenerative disease. The APOE-4 allele increases risk and decreases age at onset in AD. Studies examining ALS and APOE have failed to show a significant effect of APOE on overall risk in ALS. Studies examining the effect of APOE-4 on site of onset in ALS (bulbar or limb) have been contradictory, with some studies showing an APOE association with bulbar onset and others showing no effect. Sample size was limited in these previous reports, particularly with respect to the number of bulbar onset cases (n = 33, 34 and 53). The present study examines a large collaborative data set of ALS patients (n = 363; 95 with bulbar onset) and age-matched neurologically normal controls. The results for these data showed no significant differences in the percentage of subjects with the APOE-4/4 and APOE-4/X genotypes (X = APOE-2 or APOE-3) when comparing cases and controls in both the overall data set or in the data set stratified by site of onset. Similarly, logistic regression analysis in the overall and stratified data set while controlling for sex showed no increase or decrease in risk of ALS associated with the APOE-4 allele. In addition, there were no significant differences in age at onset between patients with APOE-X/X, and APOE-4/4 or APOE-4/X genotypes, overall or stratified by site of onset. We conclude based on these data that the APOE gene is not a major genetic risk factor for site of onset in ALS