Institutional Short-Term Training for Minority Students

(Applicant's abstract) The State University of New York at Buffalo and the Department of Pediatrics have aggressive and successful programs in the recruitment of minority medical students and in student research programs. This grant allows us to offer a continuum of research opportunities for minority students by funding experiences in their premedical and medical student years. Students will be recruited from previous participants, from high school minority programs, from New York State undergraduate and graduate campuses, and from institutions throughout the United States. The intellectual focus of this training grant will be investigation of mechanisms of adaptation of post-natal life emphasizing the lung, heart, and hematopoietic systems. Strong programmatic areas of scientific inquiry are currently being pursued within the Department of Pediatrics in collaboration with the Departments of Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Physiology and Microbiology. Many of the senior investigators are members of the Cardio-pulmonary Center, a large collaborative center of excellence housed in a 210,000 sq. ft. state-of-theart research building. In addition to the Cardio-pulmonary Center, the research environment afforded to participating minority students will include a Center for Research in Specialized Environments, the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, and the new WNY STAR Center which focuses on functional genomics, structural genomics and proteomics. Research experiences range from genetics, to cellular and molecular biology, to classical physiological studies, to applied clinical research. In addition to participating in individual research projects, minority students will be provided a curriculum that will introduce them to developmental biology and ethics in biomedical research. During their 10 week experience, students will also be introduced to role models within the minority medical community. This program will encourage students to pursue both a career in biomedical sciences and a future in biomedical research.