The overall goal of the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) RISE Program has been to actively involve students in biomedical research by providing research training, mentoring and exposure to high quality research by MSM faculty. Research training and other activities are provided to students at all collegiate levels. Under the present RISE proposal, we will continue to support student development through biomedical research training, but will focus our attention on undergraduate and pre-doctoral graduate students. The approaches taken over the four-year period of the previous grant allowed the RISE Program to achieve the expected outcomes, with few exceptions. We are indeed excited by the increase in the percentage of graduating students enrolling in a pre-doctoral graduate or graduate preparatory program. We found that 100% of students in the Minority Undergraduate Scholars in Training (MUST) component of the MSM RISE Program went into a PhD program during the last budget period. The RISE Program also had a noteworthy increase in student authorships on peer-reviewed manuscripts;our students contributed to 15 published manuscripts and 88 presentations at 20 different conferences and scientific meetings. The measurable goals and objectives of the RISE Program are outlined in the proposal. They are: Goal #1: Enhance undergraduate science student experiences in biomedical research through specific programs in order to increase undergraduate enrollment in biomedical pre-doctoral graduate programs;Goal #2: improve the success rate of pre-doctoral graduate students enrolled in the biomedical sciences program at MSM by providing research training and other enrichment activities;Goal #3: Maximize technologies to enhance program evaluation and track both undergraduate and graduate students through their research careers. The student development activities represent a multi-pronged approach to enhance the students'research knowledge and capabilities, focus the students'drive and motivation toward a career in biomedical research and, increase students'technical writing and communication skills. To accomplish these outcomes, the RISE Program will include several hands-on focused workshops that offer RISE students, MSM faculty and other students the opportunity to gain experience with state-of-the-art technology. The State-of-the-Sciences seminar series will also provide RISE students and researchers an exposure to top scientists who will present a review of the latest research in tightly focused areas. Additionally, the RISE Program will be actively involved in enhancing the academic experience of our graduate students and provide a gateway for exposure to the rapidly developing fields of bioinformatics, functional genomics, proteomics, cell and tissue engineering, and molecular histology. Through the proposed enhancement activities, involvement of students in biomedical research, and the resources and support provided, we believe the MSM RISE Program will accomplish its overall goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavior research.
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