MINORITY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT RESEARCH APPRENTICE PROGRAM

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The first five years of the RCMI initiative saw the creation of the Center for the Study of the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Development at City College. The Center, built on the existing strengths of the College in the RCMI-supported areas, was enriched by the addition of eight new faculty members (three of whom are Black) in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry and seven new faculty in the CUNY Medical School. There are now 25 researchers participating in the Center grouped in three scientific areas--Biomolecular Structure and Function, Gene Expression and Regulation, and Cell and Organism Function. Major equipment purchases and the creation of central facilities further enhanced the activity within the Center. The College, with a historic commitment to academic excellence and broad access, offers our students, more than 60% of whom are Black and Hispanic, unique opportunities for development. Our faculty provides role models for scientific excellence and achievement to under-graduates and graduate students alike. The Center now proposes to move to a new level of scientific attainment and to use that status in a strenuous effort to identify and attract increasing numbers of minority undergraduate and graduate students. To do this, the Center needs to hire additional faculty in key areas, acquire major equipment and provide new technical support personnel, including post-doctoral research fellows and technicians to maintain and operate the increasingly sophisticated state-of-the research equipment. In addition to the main scientific areas, the unique skills of Center faculty are being marshalled to pursue several AIDS-related projects concerning the properties of the AIDS-related organism Pneumocystis carinii and concerning the immunological response to the HIV virus itself. Projected additions to the RCMI faculty include a senior molecular biologist to serve as Project Director, an X-ray crystallographer, a specialist in physical characterization of biomolecules, a molecular geneticist and a neurobiologist. These scientists will provide breadth that will complement the existing areas. Major equipment purchases include an automatic sequencer and a polymerase chain reaction thermal cycler.