The specific aims of this application from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (HUMC) are: to develop a program to provide research training opportunities in biomedical sciences for underrepresented minority graduate students at California State University at Dominguez Hill (CSUDH); to foster an investigator-student relationship between the MD/PhD faculty at HUMC and graduate students of the Department of Biology at CSUDH; and to follow the students' and mentors' career pathways to evaluate the contribution of this program to their development in biomedical research. The long term objective of the proposal is to make available the research resources of HUMC, including well funded investigators and state of the art laboratories and equipment to underrepresented minority students in neighboring universities and colleges who may not otherwise have access to these resources. The program proposes to select underrepresented minority graduate students at CSUDH and match them with extramurally funded faculty at HUMC to allow the students to spend 50% of time in Year 1 and 90% of time in Year 2 of their master's program in the well equipped laboratories of well funded investigators at HUMC. No more than one student will be assigned to one mentor to allow interaction with the mentor. During the two years, with the guidance of the mentor at HUMC and the academic advisors at CSUDH, the student will complete a research project which will form the basis of their master's thesis. At the end of year 2, the students will be given the opportunity to present their research both at HUMC and CSUDH and encouraged to attend a regional/national meeting. The students will be encouraged to attend the other education programs (basic science conferences, clinical research courses, biostatistical courses) as well as special workshops designed for the students at HUMC. The program will be coordinated and administered through a Program Coordinating Committee. The career pathway and development of the students enrolled in this program will be tracked for 10 years. Their track record will be compared to minority students who had graduated from CSUDH in the prior 5 years as well as contemporary minority and non-minority students who remained at CSUDH and other California State Universities. The program serves the needs of minority students at CSUDH by providing them with research guidance, facility and opportunity and the needs of faculty at HUMC to have graduate students in their laboratories.
