The Cornell MHIRT: Biomedicines and Control of Tropical Infectious Diseases and Vectors Program will provide undergraduate international research opportunities to underrepresented minority students and encourage them to pursue graduate education and medical programs. This will be achieved by involving undergraduate students in field and biomedical laboratory research on the utilization of natural products as biomedicines. ? ? Students will participate in a summer program at established laboratories and field research stations in the Dominican Republic and Amazonian region of Peru. The undergraduate students will participate in the exploration of Neotropical forests through the collection and identification of plants, animals, and other organisms that contain bioactive substances. These biodiverse collections will be transferred to the laboratory where student participants will engage in extraction, isolation, and structural elucidation of bioactive secondary metabolites. The students will evaluate the biological activity of isolated compounds with emphasis placed on their efficacy as mosquito larvicides, antibiotics, and antivirals. ? ? The students will also evaluate the biological activity of these compounds; particular emphasis will be placed on their potential efficacy in the treatment of infectious and non-infectious disease affecting underserved communities in the Neotropics. Each student will develop and carry out independent research projects in the related areas of biomedicine discovery and chemical biology/ecology. Projects will be initiated during a summer program and the students will continue their research projects in the subsequent fall and spring semesters at their respective universities. The research will be presented at one or more academic conferences, including the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), as well as published in """"""""Emanations"""""""", a Cornell journal dedicated to undergraduate research in the biological sciences and the Cornell Undergraduate Research Forum. ? ?
