PROMOTING DIVERSITY IN RESEARCH CAREERS IN DIABETES, DIGESTIVE AND KIDNEY DISEASES

The program is designed to provide short-term experience and training inbiomedical research for undergraduate students from racial/ethnic-underrepresented groups, and forstudents from disadvantaged backgrounds. For the renewal, Penn State is joining with the Universityof Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) to enhance recruitment of URM studentsand increase the scope of student research experiences. W. Brian Reeves, M.D., Chair of Medicine atUTHSCSA and previously the PI of Penn State STEP-UP will serve as the contact PI. Dr. Gail Matters,who has served as the Program Coordinator since 2007 will serve as the Penn State PI. Progressunder the current award period has been excellent. 227 students have matriculated through the PennState STEP-UP program in its first ten years. Penn State has made targeted recruitment effortsthrough several minority student organizations which have resulted in a large increase in the numberof applications received. Applications now exceed available positions by a 5:1 ratio. Since its inceptionover 64% of Penn State STEP-UP alumni are either enrolled in or have completed post-graduateeducation in the biomedical sciences and an additional 18% are employed in biomedical fields. Thecurrent proposal builds on the successes of the current STEP-UP program and significantly expandsthe mentoring activities to provide more sustained support to the students. The plan providesbackground and hands-on experience in research related to the mission of NIDDK. The plan alsoprovides for technical advising and mentoring of students during their hands-on research experience,at a summer-end research symposium and during the subsequent academic year. The aims of theproposal are: 1. Provide a hands-on research experience through which students will learn howdiscovery, clinical and translational research are conducted and the results are disseminated to others.2. Provide mentoring and career development activities to enhance entry and retention of students inbiomedical research. The curriculum will also include discussions on normative standards of conduct,privacy and confidentiality issues, laboratory safety, research integrity, record keeping, datamanagement, and communication skills. Although the primary goal of this proposal is to increase thenumber and competence of members of underrepresented groups in biomedical research, animportant secondary benefit is to expand the proportion of underrepresented population whounderstand that life-style decisions have great consequences for their personal health and that of theirfamily, friends and community.