Ponce School of Medicine (PSM) requests continued NIH/NIGMS support for its successful MBRS Minority Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program which is about to enter the final year of its first cycle of funding. The overall goal of the PSM MBRS- RISE Program is to increase the competitiveness of underrepresented Hispanic students graduating from the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D program at PSM in Puerto Rico, and to increase the number of underrepresented students who advance to competitive postdoctoral positions. The PSM MBRS-RISE program (12 trainees) had a positive impact on the training of our PhD students and on the entire PSM community during the previous cycle. All trainees are effectively complying with criteria to remain in the program and are on track with the PhD program timeline; moreover several transitioned onto independent fellowships and are now graduating. Our program tangibly improved and achieved the benchmarks established in our first cycle of funding. We anticipate that this renewal application will build upon those successes and adapt to several important lessons learned, thus continuing our evolution from a very good to an excellent training program. The proposed application will further improve several areas of our already successful graduate program including the number of highly-qualified applicants, the availability of specialized graduate courses and workshops, financial assistance, mentoring in preparation for post-graduate professional plans, and refinement of our evaluation system to monitor our graduate students and provide direction for continually improving the training of our students. The program proposes to accomplish these goals through enhancement of the academic, research, personal, and professional competence of our underrepresented minority students to better prepare them for careers in the biomedical sciences. The specific measurable objectives of the PSM RISE program are to provide: (1) hands-on professional development and research skills training for PSM MBRS-RISE trainees; (2) communication skills training for PSM MBRS-RISE trainees; and (3) team building/networking opportunities for PSM MBRS- RISE trainees. Each of these objectives will be pursued with a balance of continuing activities that were highly effective as well as a strategic set of new training components that were developed to address the emerging needs of our students. The PSM MBRS-RISE program will work in concert with existing MBRS-SCORE and RCMI programs to significantly impact the overall research program by providing a better trained student workforce to conduct the funded research projects and provide the momentum to create new research initiatives.

Public Health Relevance

The enhanced training provided by the PSM MBRS-RISE program will increase the number of Hispanic Americans doing biomedical research and encourage the growth of biomedical research in Puerto Rico. By contributing to a more culturally diverse research workforce, the program will foster biomedical research of minority health disparities.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Education Projects (R25)
Project #
4R25GM082406-09
Application #
9096146
Study Section
Minority Programs Review Subcommittee A (MPRC)
Program Officer
Ainsztein, Alexandra M
Project Start
2008-07-01
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2016-07-01
Budget End
2017-06-30
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Ponce School of Medicine
Department
Physiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
105742043
City
Ponce
State
PR
Country
United States
Zip Code
Colón-Caraballo, Mariano; Torres-Reverón, Annelyn; Soto-Vargas, John Lee et al. (2018) Effects of histone methyltransferase inhibition in endometriosis. Biol Reprod 99:293-307
Ruiz, Abigail; Ruiz, Lynnette; Colón-Caraballo, Mariano et al. (2018) Pharmacological blockage of the CXCR4-CXCL12 axis in endometriosis leads to contrasting effects in proliferation, migration, and invasion. Biol Reprod 98:4-14
Diaz-Zabala, Hector J; Ortiz, Ana P; Garland, Lisa et al. (2018) A Recurrent BRCA2 Mutation Explains the Majority of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome Cases in Puerto Rico. Cancers (Basel) 10:
Lee, Miyoung; Gudas, Lorraine J; Saavedra, Harold I (2018) Detection of E2F-DNA Complexes Using Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Assays. Methods Mol Biol 1726:143-151
Martinez-Orengo, Neysha; Cruz, Myrella L; Velazquez, Bethzaly et al. (2018) Nurturing interest in science and understanding the role of a scientist by teaching younger students how to apply scientific thinking during daily activities. Adv Physiol Educ 42:466-472
Colón-Caraballo, Mariano; García, Miosotis; Mendoza, Adalberto et al. (2018) Human Endometriosis Tissue Microarray Reveals Site-specific Expression of Estrogen Receptors, Progesterone Receptor, and Ki67. Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol :
Santiago-Cardona, Pedro G; Pérez-Morales, Jaileene; González-Flores, Jonathan (2018) Detection of Retinoblastoma Protein Phosphorylation by Immunoblot Analysis. Methods Mol Biol 1726:49-64
Rodriguez-Velazquez, Ariel; Velez, Rosa; Lafontaine, Jean Carlo et al. (2018) Prevalence of breast and ovarian cancer subtypes in Hispanic populations from Puerto Rico. BMC Cancer 18:1177
Jusino, Shirley; Fernández-Padín, Fabiola M; Saavedra, Harold I (2018) Centrosome aberrations and chromosome instability contribute to tumorigenesis and intra-tumor heterogeneity. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 4:
Pérez-Morales, Jaileene; Núñez-Marrero, Angel; Santiago-Cardona, Pedro G (2018) Immunohistochemical Detection of Retinoblastoma Protein Phosphorylation in Human Tumor Samples. Methods Mol Biol 1726:77-84

Showing the most recent 10 out of 63 publications