SACNAS for Increasing Diversity in Genomic Research

描述(由申请人提供)：奇卡诺和美洲原住民科学促进会(SACNAS)在增加少数族裔参与科学方面取得了广泛的成功和经验。这项提议的长期目标是增加从事基因组研究的奇卡诺/拉丁裔和美洲原住民的数量。这将通过以下方式实现：1)制定和实施计划，使奇卡诺人/拉美人和美洲原住民意识到人类基因组研究；2)培养奇卡诺人和美国原住民科学家从事人类基因组研究；3)开展活动，增加来自这一社区的有竞争力的人类基因组科学家的数量。这项申请中提议的活动的基本原理是，如果没有早期、具体和深思熟虑的干预，如果没有本科生和研究生、研究人员和教职员工参与职业和教育发展的机会，我们的目标社区在基因组研究的所有方面都将仍然代表不足。具体目标是：1)为本科生提供机会发展对基因组学/生物信息学研究的理解和能力。2)为研究生提供从事基因组/生物信息学研究的支持。3)支持少数群体服务机构的教员在基因组/生物信息学研究方面获得技能和培养研究兴趣。需要检验的假设是，在NHGRI的支持下，在SACNAS提供的积极指导、职业发展和具体干预下，本科生、研究生和专业少数群体科学家将留在这个日益重要和新兴的领域，并将在这一努力中取得卓越成就。SACNAS拥有可以借鉴的专业和学生基础，并处于成功开发这一管道项目的有利地位。这些拟议活动的结果将是参与基因组学和生物信息学研究的奇卡诺/拉丁裔和美洲原住民专业人员和学生的数量增加。这些活动将包括为解决奇卡诺/拉丁裔和美洲原住民专业人员和学生在基因组学和生物信息学研究中参与率低的问题而开展的第一批重点工作。这里所显示的成功活动将建立可应用于在其他学科提高我国人口中人数不足群体地位的范例。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) has extensive success and experience in increasing minority participation in science. The long-term objective of this proposal is to increase the number of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans engaged in genomic research. This will be accomplished by 1) developing and implementing programs to make Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans aware of Human Genome research, 2) develop Chicano and Native American scientists in Human Genome Research, 3) provide activities that will lead to an increase in the number of competitively prepared human genome scientists from this community. The rationale for the proposed activities in this application is that without early, specific and well thought-out interventions, and without opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and faculty to take part in career and educational development, our target communities will remain underrepresented in all aspects of genomic research. The specific aims are: 1) to provide undergraduate students with the opportunities to develop an understanding of and competence in genomics/bioinformatics research. 2) to provide graduate students with support to pursue genomic/bioinformatics research. 3) support faculty at minority serving institutions to gain skills and develop research interests in genomic/bioinformatics research. The hypothesis to be tested is that, with the active mentoring, career development, and specific interventions provided by SACNAS as supported by NHGRI, undergraduate, graduate, and professional minority scientists will be retained in this ever important and emerging field and will achieve excellence in this endeavor. SACNAS has the professional and student base to draw on and is well positioned to successfully develop this pipeline program. The result stemming from these proposed activities will be an increase in the numbers of Chicano/Latino and Native American professionals and students that are involved in genomics and bioinformatics research. These activities will comprise the first focused efforts to address the issue of low rates of participation of Chicano/Latino and Native American professionals and students in genomics and bioinformatics research. The activities shown to be successful here will establish paradigms that can be applied for the advancement of underrepresented subsets of our population in other disciplines.