Boston University School of Medicine, through the Office of Minority Affairs, is committed to providing research training opportunities for underrepresented minority students. In the program described in this proposal five minority students will be selected each year to spend ten weeks during the summer in research laboratories on the Boston University Medical Center Campus. Those laboratories are within the Cardiovascular Institute, the Pulmonary Center, the Departments of Medicine, Biochemistry, Physiology and Biophysics. All of the research in which the students will be involved is in areas of interest to NHLBI. The students will be involved in Cardiovascular, Pulmonary and Hematologic Research and exposed to the latest research techniques and equipment. The program will serve two functions: to introduce and educate under represented minority students to the opportunities available in biomedical research, especially as it relates to cardiovascular, pulmonary and hematological diseases through a ten week summer research experience; and, to introduce biomedical scientists-researchers at Boston University School of Medicine to talented, eager and intelligent young minority students who are at the undergraduate and graduate level. The students will be involved in a variety of academic experiences in addition to their laboratory training, including seminars on the appropriate conduct of scientific research. At the end of the summer each student will make an oral presentation of the research in which they were involved. A written summary of the research will also be required.
