This proposal is requesting funds for partial support of the HUSCRI Skin of Color Symposium 2013: From Bench to Bedside, to be held in Baltimore Maryland at the Harbor Court Hotel, October 25-27, 2013. The symposium has steadily grown since its inception, and the 2013 symposium will capitalize on a multi-institutional collaboration between the HUSCRI, and the Departments of Dermatology at University of Maryland Medical Center and Eastern Virginia Medical School. We attribute the success of the 2011 HUSCRI symposium to the partial funding received from NIH (Grant 1 R13 AR061973-01) through NIAMS and the NIH Office of Rare Disease Research. The proposed symposium is designed to promote, develop and advance the education, knowledge, and research of cutaneous disorders which disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities. Centered on the theme of """"""""From Bench to Bedside"""""""", this Symposium will provide an educational program with a diverse panel of nationally recognized physician-scientists and basic-scientists that will provide the most current information of advances in research across multiple relevant arenas including medical dermatology, public health, and basic science. The session topics selected for the HUSCRI Symposium 2013 are focused towards gaining a greater depth of knowledge of disparities in access to dermatological care and the latest findings in the basic etiological mechanisms, and therapeutic interventions for, selected inflammatory skin disorders, pigmentary disorders, and keloids. The symposium will also feature a concurrent grant writing seminar designed to assist junior investigators (particularly minority investigators) on how to successfully write a research proposal and compete for extramural grant funding. Objectives of the grant writing session are to: 1)improve the success of new investigators including minority investigators in securing funds by providing grant writing assistance and direct feedback on ongoing research proposals from the experts in the field of grant writing;2)support attendance of minority junior investigators to the seminar and symposium through the provision of travel fellowships and;3)Facilitate the interaction and networking of junior investigators with senior members of the scientific and clinical community. We expect that symposium activities, including the scientific presentations, grant writing seminar, poster sessions, and other informal interactions among symposium attendees will encourage the development and increase the number of clinical, basic, and epidemiological research studies and collaborative projects in this field. This will lay the groundwork for the development of novel and improved therapeutic treatments thereby fulfilling an unmet and critical need for individuals with skin of color and dermatologic disease.
/Public Health Relevance The HUSCRI Skin of Color Symposium 2013: From Bench to Bedside is designed to promote, develop and advance the education, knowledge, and research of cutaneous disorders which disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities. This multi-institutional collaboration will produce an educational program with a diverse panel of nationally recognized physician- scientists and basic scientists who will provide the most current information regarding advances in research across multiple arenas including medical dermatology, public health, and basic research. It is expected that this symposium will encourage the development and increase the number of clinical, basic, and epidemiological research studies in this field;filling an unmet and critical need for individuals with skin of color and dermatologic disease.
