: Although the Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to millions of African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, few are enrolled in graduate programs leading to the Ph.D. in the broad range of biomedical sciences. This under-participation in the nation's biomedical research enterprise represents the loss of a large talent pool that has not been applied towards the solution of the many biomedical problems. ? ? As a partial solution to this situation, four institutions in the Los Angeles basin propose to continue the collaborative Los Angeles Basin Bridges to the Ph.D. Program to increase the number of talented minority students in Ph.D. programs in the biomedical sciences. This would be done by increasing the transfer of minority students in strong terminal Master of Science (M.S.) programs at a minority institution by vertical integration into Ph.D. programs at major research universities. These institutions are California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), a minority institution, which awards the M.S. as its highest science degree, and three Ph.D.-granting major research institutions: the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of California at Irvine (UCI), and the University of Southern California (USC). ? ? We propose to train each year a group of six minority students pursuing the M.S. degree at Cal State LA in a program designed to enhance their academic and research achievement; integrate them into the broader Southern California biomedical research community; expose them to a broad range of biomedical sciences and scientists; enhance their transfer rate to Ph.D. programs; and establish the foundation for their eventual successful research careers in the biomedical sciences. On entry into the program the students would be simultaneously admitted to Cal State LA Master of Science programs, and conditionally accepted into Ph.D. programs in the participating doctoral institutions, with guaranteed admission on successful completion of the M.S. degree.
