The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Training Program for Clinical Research on AIDS (Program) has enjoyed another outstanding five-year period (1997-2002) of achievement and growth. Because of the Program's success with underserved minority investigators being introduced into independent research careers in AIDS in the first five years of support (1992-1996), BCM received an additional trainee slot (total three per year) for the current five-year cycle. With that extra trainee position, the Program has again recruited several minority candidates who have performed splendidly in conducting original research, publishing their data in the peer-reviewed literature, and preparing for academic, government, or institutional careers in AIDS research. The BCM Program has been able to fill all of its trainee slots with the highest caliber postdoctoral applicants, half of who were of underserved minority background or women. For example, of the seven trainees since 1998, four were minorities and three were women as contrasted to the five trainees in the first grant period (1992-1997), in which two were minorities and three were women. The minorities represented in the total number of 12 residents (1992 to present) were 2 African Americans and 4 Hispanics. Of the total 12 trainees, 7 have secured academic or government positions in research on AIDS, and 3 trainees still in the program all intend to pursue a research career in AIDS. A request is made for one more training slot (total four), with which another candidate can be prepared each year for a research career in AIDS. In addition, we have added international training sites in Bucharest, Romania; Gabarone, Botswana; Kijabe, Kenya; and a potential site in Bangkok, Thailand where U.S. trainees may spend time in the context of a country where HIV infection and AIDS are rampant. Thus, the BCM program is asking for additional support to increase the number of AIDS researchers in the U.S., especially candidates with underserved minority origin, and to take part of its training program to an international site, where trainees may perform research in a society where AIDS has assumed alarming proportions. The three-part structure of the Program will remain the same: 1) laboratory-based clinical research, 2) clinical research trials, and 3) clinical epidemiology with award of the M.P.H. degree. This design has been highly successful in preparing outstanding trainees for independent research careers in AIDS in the past and with combined support will do so again in the future.
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