STD/HIV Research Training for Minority Students

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This continuation application requests support for a highly successful short-term research training program for minority health professional students. The fruitful collaborations that were established between the Howard University College of Medicine, the NIAID, and the directors of seven NIAID funded STD/HIV Clinical Research Centers will be continued. The objective of the program is to expose minority health professional students to research on STDs/HIV early in their didactic training with the expectation that it will influence them to pursue careers in academic medicine with a focus on STDs/HIV and related fields; thus contributing to the nation's efforts to eliminate health disparities. The philosophy of the program will continue to be based upon the premise that the trainees will be actively involved in all aspects of the research enterprise and will not be "just a pair of hands." Since its inception in 1996, seventy trainees (70) have participated in this program including fifty-seven (57) during this project period. An analysis of the data revealed that this program is achieving its goal of increasing minority participation in this area as evidenced by the number of its graduates who have chosen or expressed an interest in pursuing careers in academic medicine. While of the majority of the trainees are still engaged in their post graduate training, preliminary data indicate that a number have made this their career choice. Support for nine (9) trainees per/year for five (5) years is being requested. The recruitment and selection of the trainees will be the responsibility of the program director while the selection of research mentors at the training sites will be the responsibility of the respective co-program directors. The trainees will attend a mandatory orientation to Responsible Conduct of Research prior to being sent to their training site. They will be required to prepare a manuscript in which their research findings will be discussed and to participate in the Howard University Health Sciences Student Research Forum, an annual competition in which STD/HIV fellows have successfully competed since 1996.