Haumana Biomedical Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the Haumana Biomedical Program(1) is to provide ethnic minority students with high quality laboratory experiences in the biomedical and health science fields. Ethnic groups identified as underrepresented in the institution's biomedical sciences include: Full and Part-Hawaiians (8.9%), Filipino-Americans (8.7%), Samoan and Pacific Islander Americans (1.0%), and Other Mixed(2) (9.2%). The program objective is to increase the number of ethnic minority students who choose to pursue careers in the biomedical fields. A total of 12 undergraduates and 3 graduate research assistants will have two years of "hands-on" laboratory experiences. The program's approach is multidisciplinary, involving some 14 faculty from 7 science disciplines. Through the lab experience, enrichment activities, travel to a national conference, and career guidance by the faculty, the program seeks to improve the competitiveness of a greater number of ethnic minorities to pursue a Ph.D. degree. A second key factor in this process is the opportunity the program provides for the student to attend, and/or present scientific results at a mainland conference and to produce work for publication. Enrichment activities offered include a series on "Ethics and Research," a seminar on "Foundation to a Biomedical Career," a course on "Science Communication Skill," and an "Electron Microscopy" workshop. A new initiative is support of a minority faculty development project that will enable the investigator to gain independent research status. Additional minority scientists will travel to UHM to motivate students to stay on the path towards a biomedical career. The program will offer course credits to students to attend weekly seminars in the Fall and Spring semesters. We plan to continue the successful 11 week "Student Enrichment Program" that affords 16 summer participants the opportunity to work in a research lab at UHM. Two students each will attend from MBRS programs in the Pacific region. Two high school students and two undergraduates attending the university's Kapiolani Community College will also be invited to participate in the summer experience. The summer enrichment program affords research faculty the opportunity to augment the science skills of the high school students as well as the undergraduates who will apply to the MBRS programs upon their return to their home campuses in the Fall semester. The university gains from the increased number of research assistants capable of contributing new knowledge and expertise in the biomedical and health science fields. (1) The Haumana (Hawaiian word for student) Biomedical Program is part of the Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program, IMSD, which is part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH. (2) African American, Native American, Hispanic.