(From Application): This application builds on the successes of the current MIRT program at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). It represents a reconfiguration of the program that eliminates the weaker elements of the program and adds elements designed to improve the outcomes of this student-training program. The present application incorporates one other California State University campus, Cal State Bakersfield, and reduces the number of foreign host institutions from seven to three. This redesigned program will continue to provide a high-quality biomedical/biosocial research experience in outstanding international laboratories. It will continue to provide talented minority students research experiences that are otherwise unavailable to the cohort of students on the participating campuses and encourage them to pursue careers in biomedical research. At the same time, the program will link students with domestic faculty mentors who are active scientists and who are vital as role models for the MIRT student trainees. The MIRT program is a key component of institutional efforts to better serve underrepresented student groups and direct them into careers in biomedical research. In the current application the plan for working with returning students has been strengthened. The addition of a program coordinator, with responsibility for follow-up with the trainees after their MIRT experience, will help ensure that the students remain in contact with their Cal Poly mentors, and foreign mentors as necessary, and develop their work into a scientific presentation or publication. Advising on graduate studies will also be provided. The number of foreign sites that will be used in the proposed program has been reduced to three. All were used successfully in the current MIRT program. These sites are the International Institute of Nutrition in Lima, Peru; the University of the Balearic Islands in Mallorca, Spain; and the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic. Ten student trainees per year, at least eight of whom are undergraduates, will be placed at these sites.
