University of NewMexico/Harvard PREM: Leadership in Biomaterials

我们在哈佛大学材料研究科学与工程中心(MRSEC)、新墨西哥大学(UNM)、西南印度理工学院(SIPI)和阿尔伯克基公立学校(APS)之间建立了研究和教育伙伴关系。该项目由NSFs材料研究和教育伙伴关系计划(PREM)资助，将专注于一个前景广阔的多学科材料技术领域：生物材料，即用于医疗设备或与生物系统接触的材料(合成和天然；固体，有时是液体)。虽然生物材料在我们的医疗保健体系中是一个巨大且快速增长的经济组成部分(据估计，全球每年超过1000亿美元)，但它们也为来自代表性不足群体的学生提供了一个重要的背景，使材料研究职业更具相关性。我们致力于这一前提，并制定了一项计划，为少数族裔社区的现实世界问题提供合乎逻辑的研究联系。这种联系将使我们能够有效地利用生物材料技术来激励来自代表性不足群体的学生追求研究事业。该伙伴关系将整合与当地教育机构的联盟，侧重于少数民族学生的教育和培训、师范教育、基于团队的研究和各级专业发展，以实现实质性的体制和基础设施发展。这一系统化的方法将在短期内通过实现PREM的目标产生巨大影响，同时以新墨西哥州积极、多方面的生物材料教育和研究计划的形式保证NSF投资的持久遗产。组成部分的子项目将专注于为三个在少数群体中特别存在问题的医学领域开发新材料技术：传染病(廉价的检测和诊断)、心血管疾病(组织工程方法，用于小直径血管移植物和心脏瓣膜)和癌症(成本效益高、个性化的、用于诊断和预后的基因组测序)。在每个研究项目中，将组建多学科、多机构的团队，以协同最大限度地提高研究和培训力度，同时充分利用哈佛大学和联合国苏丹特派团现有的最先进设施。该项目将通过与APS、SIPI和哈佛大学合作，对少数族裔学生的教育产生直接影响。APS是一个拥有大量少数族裔人口的城市学区，SIPI是一所侧重于科学、技术、工程和数学教育的部落学院，UNM是一所为西班牙裔服务的研究型大学，以及哈佛大学。我们将与一些以少数群体为重点的科学和工程组织密切合作，促进与APS的外展活动，并从UNM、SIPI和APS招募有才华的学生参与我们的研究项目。与哈佛大学的合作为促进新墨西哥州的生物材料研究和教育发展提供了重要的途径，使其能够获得有利的专业知识和设备。学生将从与哈佛大学的这一合作伙伴关系中受益，获得基于团队的研究经验、新课程、研究专业人员网络、专业发展资源和社区拓展经验。这种活动的结合将特别适合于鼓励我们的学生努力从事最高水平的研究和教育事业，特别是在学术界。我们将积极推动材料研究和教育作为一个重要和相关的新兴职业领域，并将跟踪最终将研究和教育作为其职业选择的学生数量。至关重要的是，该项目通过支持新墨西哥州大学几名新教师的职业发展，将使我们能够将生物材料研究和教育制度化，将其作为新墨西哥州第一个重要的生物医学工程教育项目的支柱。该项目的成功不仅将使所有相关机构受益，而且将有可能在未来多年对各国材料科学人力资源库的多样性产生积极影响。该伙伴关系将在少数民族材料教育方面建立典范传统，是加强新墨西哥州教育研究基础设施的合乎逻辑的一步，同时使我们能够在获得最高水平的NSF支持方面具有竞争力。

UNM/Harvard PREM: Leadership in BiomaterialsWe have established a research and educational partnership between the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Harvard University, the University of New Mexico (UNM), the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) and the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). This project, funded through the NSFs program on Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) will focus on a promising, multidisciplinary area of materials technology: biomaterials, which are materials (synthetic and natural; solid and sometimes liquid) used in medical devices or in contact with biological systems. While biomaterials represent a huge and rapidly growing economic component of our health care system (estimated at over $100 billion per year worldwide), they also provide an important context for increasing the relevance of materials research careers for students from under-represented groups. We are committed to this premise and have devised a plan for providing logical research connections with real-world issues in minority communities. This connection will allow us to efficiently utilize biomaterials technologies to motivate students from under-represented groups to pursue research careers. The partnership will integrate alliances with local educational institutions, focusing on education and training of minority students, teacher-education, team-based research, and professional development at all levels to result in substantive institutional and infrastructure development. This systematic approach will have an enormous impact by achieving the goals of the PREM in the short term, while guaranteeing an enduring legacy for the NSF investment in the form of an active, multi-faceted, biomaterials education and research program in the state of New Mexico.The component subprojects will be focused on developing new materials technologies for three areas of medicine that are especially problematic in minority populations: infectious diseases (inexpensive detection and diagnosis), cardiovascular diseases (tissue engineering approaches to small diameter vascular grafts and heart valves) and cancer (cost effective, individualized, genomic sequencing for diagnosis and prognosis). In each research project, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams will be assembled to synergistically maximize research and training efforts while taking full advantage of the spectrum of state-of-the-art facilities available at Harvard and UNM.This project will have an immediate impact on the education of minority students by partnering APS, an urban school district with a large minority population, SIPI, a tribal college with an emphasis in science, technology, engineering and math education, UNM, a Hispanic Serving Research University, and Harvard University. We will work closely with a number of minority focused science and engineering organizations to both facilitate outreach activities with APS and to recruit talented students from UNM, SIPI and APS to participate in our research projects. Partnering with Harvard provides important access to enabling expertise and equipment to facilitate biomaterials research and education development in New Mexico. Students will benefit from this partnership with Harvard by gaining access to team-based research experiences, new course offerings, networks of research professionals, professional development resources, and community outreach experience. This combination of activities will be particularly well suited for encouraging our students to strive for the highest level of research and educational careers, especially in academia. We will actively promote materials research and education as an important and relevant emergent career field, and will track the number of students that ultimately make research and education their career choices. Critically, this project, by supporting the career development of several new faculty at UNM, will enable us to institutionalize biomaterials research and education as a pillar of the first significant biomedical engineering educational program in the state of New Mexico. Success with this program will not only benefit all of the institutions involved but will have the potential to positively impact the diversity of the nations human resource pool in materials science for many years to come. The partnership will establish an exemplary tradition in minority materials education and is a logical step in enhancing the educational research infrastructure in the state of New Mexico, while allowing us to become competitive for the highest level of NSF support.