Background Mentorship has been well-established in the literature as fostering scientific identity and career pathways for underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Mentorship is prioritized by programs that aim to increase diversity and support future leadership in STEM fields, but in-depth understanding of mentorship in these contexts remains limited. Drawing on qualitative interview data, we sought to understand the relationship between mentoring and scientific identity among a diverse sample of 24 students in one such program, in order to inform program development. Results Qualitative analysis of the data revealed that mentorship, especially research mentorship, was common and played a role in formation of scientific identity. Students with research mentors tended to say they strongly identified as scientists, whereas those who lacked research mentorship varied in their level of scientific identity. In interviews, research-mentored students described mentors as colleagues who gave them opportunities to grow and as examples to look up to. Students valued mentors with whom they identified on the basis of demographic similarity or shared values, as well as those who challenged them in their academic and research endeavors. Conclusions Our analysis highlights how different mentoring experiences can contribute to development of future STEM leadership. We discuss implications for practice, including the need for tailored mentoring approaches and research-focused mentoring, and offer several recommendations for research and programming.

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To attract new clients and deliver the best possible customer service to your existing ones, it is important to handle all enquiries in an effective and timely manner. In this article, business development specialist Hannah Potter gives aesthetic practitioners essential advice on using your voice to its advantage, effective listening techniques and turning enquiries into turnover for your clinic

Ebola virus (EBOV), a filovirus family member, is a highly pathogenic virus that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever resulting in documented mortality rates in humans as high as 50%. EBOV virus-like particles (VLPs) are morphologically and biochemically similar to parental virus, yet they lack a genome and cannot replicate. We hypothesize that addition of a constitutionally active retinoic acid-inducible gene 1 (RIG-I) would enhance the ability of the EBOV VLPs to induce antigen-presentation from infected antigen-presenting cells. Expression of EBOV VP40 in 293T cells induces the spontaneous production of VLPs into the media supernatant and if expressed with EBOV glycoprotein (GP), will produce VLPs studded with the attachment GP. Recombinant chimeric constitutively active (ca)RIG-I-VP40 matrix and a nonfunctional mutant L58A (mu)RIG-I-VP40 matrix genes were constructed to produce VLPs containing constitutively active and nonfunctional RIG-I, respectively. Supernatant from 293Ts transfected with caRIG-I-VP40, muRIG-I-VP40 or VP40 along with GP expression plasmids were tested for the presence of VLPs. Western blotting of purified VLPs confirmed the presence of RIG-I in caRIG-I-VP40 and muRIG-I-VP40 VLPs. Monocyte-like THP-1 reporter cells were treated with nothing, VP40+GP, caRIG-I-VP40+GP and muRIG-I-VP40+GP VLPs as well as LPS and tested for induction of interferon signaling. CaRIG-I containing, but not muRIG-I containing VLPs induced interferon signaling as well as greater MHC I upregulation. Furthermore, CaRIG-I containing, but not muRIG-I containing VLPs induced greater levels of IL-2 production from treated mixed-lymphocyte reactions. Future studies will test the vaccine efficacy of caRIG-I containing VLPs.