Biology subjects

Dolan, E. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Dolan, E. L..

14 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Advancing the Conceptualization and Measurement of Mentorship: The Mentoring Experiences in Research & Graduate Education (MERGE) Scale

Interest in mentoring remains widespread within the scientific community, as mentorship is considered crucial to developing the scientific workforce. A longstanding focus on the positive aspects of mentorship obscures the reality that some mentoring relationships may be ineffective, counterproductive, or harmful. Progress has been limited by the absence of a scale capable of measuring both the positive and negative mentoring experiences of doctoral students. We addressed this need by developing a new scale: the Mentoring Experiences in Research and Graduate Education (MERGE). Results of three sequential multi-method studies (total N = 1,308) provide evidence for: (a) the content and response process validity of the MERGE; (b) a six-factor structure capturing the range of mentoring experiences; (c) negative mentoring experiences as empirically distinct from the absence of positive mentoring; (d) convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity of the MERGE, with each factor demonstrating unique patterns of association with outcomes; and (e) the incremental validity of the MERGE in predicting outcomes beyond an existing measure of mentoring competence. We conclude by discussing implications for the use of the scale in doctoral education, including both theory advancement and applied practice.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2026

Variation in CURE instruction and limitations of CURE studies undermine what can be concluded about CURE effects on student outcomes

Research suggests that students realize a range of cognitive, affective, and motivation-related outcomes by participating in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). However, the overall effects of CUREs on student outcomes are unclear. We sought to address this knowledge gap by embarking on a meta-analysis of CURE studies using the Population, Intervention, Comparison/Control group, and Outcomes framework. We conducted a literature search to produce an analytic sample of 353 studies of the effects of CUREs instruction on undergraduates. We characterized the CUREs being studied in this sample, including their dose, duration, and design. We also examined each study to determine if outcomes were measured before and after the CURE and with a comparison or control group so that effects could be attributed to CURE. We found substantial limitations in studies of CUREs, which precluded meta-analysis. CUREs varied widely and were unevenly described, making it difficult to determine what could or should constitute CURE instruction as an intervention. Many outcomes were studied, often without a comparison or control group and with inconsistent measurement and reporting. Our results indicate that advancements are needed in the design and reporting of research on CUREs to gauge their effects on student outcomes. Highlight SummaryMany studies of CURE instruction aim to show effects on student outcomes. Yet, systematic review of these studies reveals limitations in study design, methods, and reporting that preclude meta-analysis and limit any cross-study conclusions.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2026

Black women undergraduates' perspectives on how mentors and role models shape their beliefs about the attainability of science research careers

Undergraduate research experiences offer important paths into scientific research careers, yet students do not experience them uniformly. For Black women, these experiences occur within racialized and gendered environments that may shape whether they perceive research careers as attainable. Yet little is known about these influences, including how mentors, role models, and institutional contexts, could support or limit Black womens beliefs about research career attainability. To advance our understanding of these influences, we conducted interviews with 23 Black women who participated in undergraduate research at 18 institutions in the United States, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs). We conducted qualitative content analysis to understand Black women undergraduate researchers perceptions of the attainability of a scientific research career, including the influences of their mentors, role models, and institutional context. Three main themes emerged. First, Black women undergraduates varied in the importance they placed on sharing racial and gender identities with mentors and role models; some viewed such similarities as highly meaningful while others described them as less influential. Second, Black women undergraduates described that mentors and role models who shared similar life experiences, values, attitudes, or beliefs contributed to perceptions that scientific research careers were attainable, regardless of gender or racial similarity. Third, institutional context (HBCU, PWI) shaped how mentoring and role modeling influenced Black women undergraduates perceptions of research career attainability. We conclude by offering recommendations for individuals seeking to support Black women in undergraduate research and in their pursuit of research careers.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2026

Influence of non-content instructor talk on students' motivation-related outcomes in laboratory courses

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) can expand undergraduates access to research and motivate students to stay in science. Yet, little research has examined how CURE instruction shapes student motivation. We leveraged a motivation-related characterization of non-content talk of 48 CURE and non-CURE instructors to predict the motivation-related outcomes of 462 students. We fit a series of multi-level models (MLM) in which we regressed students post-course scientific self-efficacy, task values, scientific identity, and science-related intentions onto instructors self-efficacy and task values-related talk, controlling for students pre-course levels. We also fit an MLM to explore whether instructors relationship-building talk (immediacy talk) was associated with students rapport with their instructor. Instructors self-efficacy talk did not affect students self-efficacy, and instructors immediacy talk had a marginally positive but non-significant association with students rapport ratings. Instructors task values talk positively influenced students scientific identity and some but not all of their task values. Instructors task values talk also positively influenced students intentions to pursue a science career, but not graduate education or research careers. Collectively, these results suggest that instructors task values talk may underpin some of the motivational effects of CURE instruction, but that task values talk need not be limited to CUREs. HIGHLIGHTWe examine whether instructor talk predicts students motivational outcomes in CURE and non-CURE lab courses. Self-efficacy talk had no effect on student self-efficacy. Task values talk positively affected students science identity and career intentions, and some value beliefs. Immediacy talk was marginally related to student-instructor rapport.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2026

Development and field test of an intervention to reduce conflict in faculty-doctoral student mentoring relationships

Mentoring is a critical component of graduate education. However, conflicts can occur between faculty mentors and their graduate students, which can undermine the quality of these relationships. We leveraged attribution theory and relationship science to develop a novel professional development intervention that combines attribution retraining to enhance faculty beliefs that they can improve their mentoring relationships, and conflict management training to build faculty skills in having productive problem-solving conversations with their graduate students. We piloted and refined the intervention, then conducted a field test of the intervention with life science faculty (n = 71) from U.S. universities. Participants were randomly assigned to an asynchronous self-guided condition or to a self-guided + synchronous facilitated peer discussion condition. We measured faculty beliefs, perceived skills, and self-reported behaviors when encountering conflicts before and after participating in the intervention. Faculty in both conditions reported significant reductions in the frequency of conflicts with their students, the time and energy they spent addressing conflicts, and the extent to which conflicts disrupted their research productivity. Faculty also expressed increased confidence that they could manage conflicts. Our results suggest that the intervention has the potential to improve faculty capacity to effectively navigate conflicts with their graduate students. Highlight summaryA mentoring intervention for faculty combining attribution-retraining and conflict management skill-building strengthened faculty self-efficacy and motivational beliefs and reduced mentoring conflicts.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

The currency of research access: How undergraduates leverage social capital to gain research experience

BackgroundScience students who engage in undergraduate research experiences (UREs) benefit in numerous ways, including persisting in science at a higher rate compared to students who do not participate in UREs. However, UREs are a limited commodity and competition for access to these opportunities necessitates further investigation into why certain students succeed in accessing UREs, while others do not. Social capital, or the resources that students extract from their relationships with others, may play a key role in determining who engages in UREs. To begin to address this knowledge gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with students who had recently started UREs (n=21). Informed by Lins conceptual definition of social capital, we qualitatively analyzed these interviews to characterize the social capital that science undergraduates found useful for accessing research. ResultsStudents described leveraging ten unique forms of social capital when accessing UREs that aligned with Lins conceptualization. Specifically, students described utilizing social capital to garner information about available UREs and how to best navigate the path to accessing them, to reinforce their confidence in pursuing UREs, to influence the views of opportunity holders, and to serve as social credentials lending credibility to their aptitude for research. Although students detailed how faculty served as sources of all of these forms of capital, they also described advisors, employers, peers, and family as influential sources. Furthermore, their institutions served as a source of capital, and students themselves engaged in a variety of proactive behaviors to access UREs. ConclusionsHere we describe the forms and sources of social capital that science undergraduates use to access research, which can be used as an operational definition of the construct. Such a definition is necessary for future research aimed at measuring social capital for undergraduate research and identifying its antecedents, correlates, and consequences. We also describe how institutions can serve as sources of capital, and how students proactive behaviors play a role in their pursuit of UREs. This work provides an important starting point for determining the influence of social capital in accessing UREs and further broadening access to research in the sciences.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

What drives change? Characterizing scientific self-efficacy development in undergraduate research experiences

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) and course-based UREs (CUREs) promote students scientific self-efficacy growth. Yet, how self-efficacy develops during research is not understood. Furthermore, what students do during research varies in ways that likely affect self-efficacy development. We sought to address these knowledge gaps by collecting scientific self-efficacy data from CURE and URE students at nine universities at the beginning, middle, and end of a single term of research. We leveraged a theoretical advancement, latent state-trait theory-revised, to disaggregate the components of students self-efficacy into stable or trait-like self-efficacy and dynamic or state-like self-efficacy. We determined that students scientific self-efficacy was moderately stable during their research, with the most malleable component being beliefs in their abilities to figure out data collection and explain results. We also surveyed students [~]45 times throughout their research experience to test the extent to which research hours and types of research tasks contributed to self-efficacy development. We found that students who completed more analytic tasks experienced significantly more self-efficacy growth than students who completed other types of tasks, while time spent on research was not influential. Our results illustrate the importance of engaging students in analytic tasks during CUREs and UREs for fostering their self-efficacy development. Highlight for table of contentsUsing latent state-trait theory-revised, we found that students scientific self-efficacy was more stable than malleable over one research term. Beliefs about data collection and explaining results were most dynamic. Conducting more analytic tasks fostered self-efficacy, while the time spent and completion of other tasks had no effect.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

Are they funny? Associations between instructors humor and student emotions in undergraduate lab courses

Instructor use of humor can positively affect students educational experiences by increasing students comfort in the classroom and making the instructor seem more approachable. Humor can also elicit emotional responses, which in turn may influence students engagement in the course and their relationship with the instructor. However, students may interpret instructor humor differently, resulting in varied effects. The present study examined how instructors use of humor relates to students emotions about their lab course. In addition, we examined whether researcher-identified humor aligned with student reports to support valid inferences about instructor humor. To accomplish this, trained researchers analyzed classroom audio recordings of instructor talk in 48 lab courses to identify instances of instructor humor. We also surveyed their undergraduate students (n = 462) about their instructors humor and pleasant and unpleasant emotions about their lab course. Our results revealed that trained researchers coding of instructor humor was poorly predictive of students emotions about their laboratory courses. In contrast, students who perceived their instructor to be humorous reported greater pleasant emotions and fewer unpleasant emotions. Our results suggest that instructor humor from students perspective may be influential in how they experience instruction. In addition, student perceptions of instructor humor may be a more useful indicator than researcher observations for studying instructor humor.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

Could instructor talk drive CURE effectiveness? A comparative study of instructor talk in introductory lab courses

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are thought to enhance students motivation to continue in college, in science, and in research. Yet, how CUREs enhance student motivation is largely undefined. Theories of instructor immediacy, self-efficacy, and task values suggest that CURE instructors may talk in ways that influence students motivational beliefs. We characterized the non-content related talk of instructors teaching 48 introductory biology lab courses, half CUREs and half non-CUREs. We identified 14 types of instructor talk that fit these theoretical perspectives: fostering students closeness with their instructor (i.e., immediacy talk), building students confidence in their scientific abilities (i.e., self-efficacy talk), and promoting students sense of worth in their work (i.e., task value talk). Course type had a medium effect on talk type, with CURE instructors utilizing more immediacy, self-efficacy, and task values talk than non-CURE instructors but also showing more variation in these types of talk. Our results suggest that motivation-related instructor talk is more prevalent in CUREs than non-CUREs, but wide variation in CURE instructor talk indicates additional investigation is needed before non-content talk can be considered a mechanism for the motivational influences of CUREs. HIGHLIGHTThis study compares non-content instructor talk in CURE and non-CURE lab courses using immediacy, self-efficacy, and task value theories. CURE instructors use more talk than non-CURE instructors, but variation in CURE instructor talk leaves open the question of whether talk is a causal factor in the motivational influence of CURE instruction.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

Seeing isn't believing? Mixed effects of a perspective-getting intervention to improve mentoring relationships for science doctoral students

Science doctoral students can experience negative interactions with faculty mentors and internalize these experiences, potentially leading to self-blame and undermining their research self-efficacy. Helping students perceive these interactions adaptively may protect their research self-efficacy and maintain functional mentoring relationships. We conducted a pre-registered, longitudinal field experiment of a novel perspective-getting intervention combined with attribution retraining to help students avoid self-blame and preserve research self-efficacy. Science doctoral students (n = 155) were randomly assigned to read about mentor perspectives on negative interactions (i.e., Perspective-getting Condition) or about mentoring with no mentor perspective (i.e., control condition). Contrary to our hypotheses, we found no main effects of the intervention on students self-blame or research self-efficacy. However, for students with lower pre-intervention mentorship relationship satisfaction, the intervention preserved research self-efficacy six months later. This study provides evidence that perspective getting may be protective for students who are most in need of relationship intervention. Educational Relevance and Implications StatementEffective mentoring relationships are fundamental for promoting the success of doctoral students in science, yet not all mentoring relationships are high quality. This study assessed the effectiveness of a brief perspective-getting intervention (where students are given the perspective of what it is like to be a research mentor) that aimed to protect science doctoral students from blaming themselves for negative interactions with faculty mentors and maintain their research self-efficacy. Results showed that on average across all students, the intervention did not affect students self-blame for negative interactions or their research self-efficacy. However, the intervention did help students with less satisfying mentoring relationships maintain their self-efficacy. Thus, perspective-getting shows some promise for protecting science doctoral students from harm that can be caused by negative interactions with faculty mentors.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

TFAM as a sensor of UVC-induced mitochondrial DNA damage

Mitochondria lack nucleotide excision repair; however, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is resistant to mutation accumulation following DNA damage. These observations suggest additional damage sensing or protection mechanisms. Transcription Factor A, Mitochondrial (TFAM) compacts mtDNA into nucleoids and binds differentially to certain forms of DNA damage. As such, TFAM has emerged as a candidate for protecting mtDNA or sensing damage. To examine the possibilities that TFAM might protect DNA from damage or act as a damage sensing protein for irreparable forms of mtDNA damage, we used live-cell imaging and HeLa cell-based assays, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and high-throughput protein-DNA binding assays to characterize the binding properties of human TFAM to ultraviolet-C (UVC) irradiated DNA and the cellular consequences of UVC irradiation. Our cell data show increased TFAM mRNA after exposure and suggest an increase in mtDNA degradation without a loss in mitochondrial membrane potential that might trigger mitophagy. Our protein-DNA binding assays indicate a reduction in sequence specificity of TFAM following UVC irradiation and a redistribution of TFAM binding throughout the mitochondrial genome. Our AFM data show increased compaction of DNA by TFAM in the presence of damage. Despite the TFAM-mediated compaction of mtDNA in vitro, we do not observe any protective effect of increased TFAM protein on DNA damage formation in cells or in vitro. Increased TFAM protein did not alter levels of mtDNA damage over time after UVC exposure in vivo, but knockdown of TFAM did alter mtDNA damage levels in HeLa cells both at baseline and after UVC exposure. Taken together, these studies indicate that UVC-induced DNA damage alters TFAM binding and promotes compaction by TFAM in vitro. We hypothesize that that TFAM may act as a damage sensing protein in vivo, sequestering damaged genomes to prevent mutagenesis by facilitating removal or suppression of replication.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2023

Breast cancer cells can recognize and respond to different levels of progestins to achieve different phenotypic outputs

The steroid hormone progesterone, acting through its nuclear progesterone receptor (PR), has complex physiologic activities with different levels of hormones manifesting distinct and sometimes opposing phenotypic responses in target tissues. However, most of what is currently known about the transcriptional activity of PR comes from studies performed using progestins at levels that are in the high physiologic range ([≥]10nM), relevant only in the luteal phase of the reproductive cycle and pregnancy in humans. These studies do not consider the non-linearity of responses to progestins that exist in physiology and are not informative as to the mechanisms by which low levels of progestins, as occurs during menopause, exert their biological activities. Thus, we undertook to define the mechanisms which enable cells to recognize and respond to different levels of progestins. Using a PR expressing cell model of luminal breast cancer (T47D cells) we demonstrated that low concentration progestins (0.1-0.3nM) drive proliferation while high dose progestins ([≥]10nM) inhibit proliferation. Using both unbiased and targeted approaches, we found that low dose progestins facilitate cell cycle entry by enhanced expression of CCND1 and SGK1, which are both required to initiate a signaling cascade that leads to increased phospho-Rb and E2F1 transcriptional activity. CCND1 cooperates with CDK4/6 to phosphorylate Rb, while SGK1 phosphorylates p21, thereby excluding it from the nucleus and inhibiting its anti-proliferative function. Expression of CCND1 and SGK1 mRNAs are primary responses to low dose progestin treatment. However, these responses occur at very low levels of receptor occupancy and in the absence of receptor phosphorylation events that have been shown to be required for nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity. These findings challenge the assumption of linearity in response to progestin dose. Further, they suggest that concentrations of progestins found in post-menopausal women (0.1-0.3nM) have the potential to exert proliferative responses in PR expressing cancers.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Development and Validation of the Mentoring in Undergraduate Research Survey

Here we present the development and initial validation of the Mentoring in Undergraduate Research Survey (MURS) as a measure of a range of mentoring experienced by undergraduate science researchers. We drafted items based on qualitative research and refined the items through cognitive interviews and expert sorting. We used national dataset to evaluate the internal structure of the measure and a second national dataset to examine how responses on the MURS related to theoretically-relevant constructs and student characteristics. Our factor analytic results indicate seven lower order forms of mentoring experiences: abusive supervision, accessibility, career and technical support, psychosocial support, interpersonal mismatch, sexual harassment, and unfair treatment. These forms of mentoring mapped onto two higher-order factors: supportive and destructive mentoring experiences. Although most undergraduates reported experiencing supportive mentoring, some reported experiencing absence of supportive as well as destructive experiences. Undergraduates who experienced less supportive and more destructive mentoring also experienced lower scientific integration and a dampening of their beliefs about the value of research. The MURS should be useful for investigating the effects of mentoring experienced by undergraduate researchers and for testing interventions aimed at fostering supportive experiences and reducing or preventing destructive experiences and their impacts. Highlight summaryThis study presents the development and initial validation of the Mentoring in Undergraduate Research Survey, including evidence of its internal structure as well as convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2023

Beyond performance, competence, and recognition: Forging a science researcher identity in the context of research training

Background Studying science identity development has been useful for understanding students continuation in science-related education and career paths. Yet, how science contexts shape students science identity development, especially as students engage in research at the undergraduate and graduate level, is still largely unexplored. Here we integrate science identity and professional identity theories to investigate how research training shapes science identity. We focus on a specialized form of science identity we call science researcher identity. We characterize how the features of an individuals research experience, and their personal characteristics interact to influence whether and how they see themselves as a science researcher. We accomplished this in two phases of qualitative research. First, we surveyed 548 undergraduate researchers about how their research experience influenced their identity as a scientist. Then we interviewed 30 early career researchers, including undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and doctoral students, about their views of themselves as researchers and how elements of their research training shaped their views. ResultsEarly career researchers (ECRs) viewed themselves as either science students or science researchers. How ECRs recognized themselves depended on how they viewed the purpose of their daily work and the extent to which they perceived autonomy and intellectual responsibility in their research. Individual-level factors, including research and researcher conceptions, research skill perceptions, and career intentions, influenced whether ECRs identified as science students or science researchers. ECRs also recognized themselves more or less as researchers based on contextual factors like the nature of their work, social interactions, and their perceptions of the norms within their research group and institution. ECRs considered how individual and contextual factors affected their science researcher identity through a lens we call sense-making. We further detail the processes ECRs use to make sense of their science identity and the factors that influence it. ConclusionsWe synthesized our findings to form a conceptual model of science researcher identity development, which hypothesizes relationships among constructs related to science identity and professional identity development. Our results advance theory related to science identity, offer avenues for future investigation, and inform efforts to promote science researcher identity development.

scientific communication and education↗