SCORE Program at Cal Poly Pomona

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The SCORE Program at Cal Poly Pomona was established in June, 2000 to significantly improve the research capabilities of the University with the ultimate objective of increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who are motivated to pursue careers as biomedical scientists. To achieve these ends the program funds high-quality research leading to peer-reviewed publications and strengthens the infrastructure for scientific research. The existing program includes twelve subprojects involving a total of thirteen faculty, all with strong, demonstrable commitments to research, and graduate and undergraduate education. The program is interdisciplinary, involving faculty from four academic departments in two different colleges. The projects are diverse as well, covering topics ranging from human nutrition and health, to organ system structure and function, immunology, cellular and molecular biology, and organic and biochemistry. The requested supplemental subproject will expand the program by adding two projects, one dealing with muscle and the other dealing with bone. The project dealing with muscle will expand the amount of research using genetically modified animals, a very important technology in the field of biology, and contribute to the career of a newly hired faculty member in Biology. The project dealing with bone is the first submission of a SCORE grant application from the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotions. It deals with osteoporosis, a critical health issue, and represents an important expansion of the SCORE program into a third college (Liberal Arts and Social Sciences) and a fifth department. The four departments already participating in the SCORE proposal have been very effective at recruiting underrepresented students, with enrollments of Latino students, for example, growing twice as fast as for the University as a whole.