Obesity is a critical global epidemic, a leading cause of preventable death, and a source of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Currently more than two thirds of US adults are overweight and at least one third are consideredobese.

Uterine leiomyomas (LM; fibroids) are monoclonal neoplasms of the myometrium (MM) and represent themost frequent tumors in women worldwide. Although benign, they nonetheless account for significantgynecologic and reproductive dysfunction.

Numerous studies have indicated that pain is the top ranked symptom in head and neck cancer (HNC)patients. However, available treatments are limited and associated with severe side effects addingsubstantially to the burden of having cancer. Thus, there is a critical need for novel analgesics.

The hypothalamus is the brain hub that regulates energy homeostasis. The genetic and molecular basis of thisregulation in humans is not well understood as access to this tissue is a major barrier and available onlypostmortem. To overcome the barrier of limited tissue access, we are generating induced pluripotent stem cell(iPSC)-derived neuronal cultures that recapitulate many of the features of hypothalamic neurons from thearcuate nucleus, including by benchmarking this in vitro model to in vivo events that are pivotal in hypothalamicdevelopment.

Having improved the recruitment and retention rates of underrepresented (UR) studentsin the graduate program at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio(UTHSCSA), we now shift our we now focus our attention on the development of noveland cutting edge practices and processes that will produce UR students that are not onlyhighly competitive, but are leaders, in the biomedical workforce. Here we propose aseries of systematic interventions designed to sharpen critical thinking skills and developgrant and manuscript writing as well as presentation skills.