The overall goal of the MARC U*STAR program is to increase the number of academically successful underrepresented minority students who are admitted to and graduate with degrees from biomedically-related doctoral programs. This proposal is for a continuation of a successful program that has been providing 10 students a 2-year mentored research experience in the laboratory of a research faculty member; a summer research externship at another university, or industrial or government lab; regular presentation of research results at local, regional and national meetings; workshops on science careers, developing effective externship and graduate applications, and GRE preparation; a required 3-credit Responsible Conduct of Research course; and a special meeting to introduce family to the MARC program, the faculty mentor and the student's research laboratory. In the last 5 years, this program has moved 10 students into the graduate pipeline (4 Ph.D.; 4 PREP; 2 Masters), with a dozen more academically successful students positioned to enter biomedical graduate schools. To the elements of our previous program, all of which will be continued, in this cycle we will add activities designed to increase students; academic success and credentials for graduate admission. Specific measurable objectives have been established for the new activities which include: academic support services in the form of tutorial workshops to help MARC students excel in key science courses; the requirement that each MARC student submit a final written paper on their research experience at the end of the MARC appointment; regular, systematic, and structured activities to prepare for the timely completion for GREs with improved test scores; workshops for both students and faculty on techniques to develop the most effective graduate and fellowship applications possible, with special attention to statements of purpose and faculty letters of recommendation; a system of documenting competency in basic and specialized scientific computer applications; new courses in bioinformatics and in epidemiology and biostatistics with an emphasis on minority health disparities, and several new laboratories in Physical and Biochemistry that emphasize quantitative/modeling approaches, and the retrieval and use of structural and other information from proteomics and genetics bases.
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