MBRS RISE at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus

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The MBRS RISE Program at the UPR MSC, currently in its seventh year of support, requests support to continue to expand the overall impact and value of the program. Its overall goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavioral research, focusing on the development of its undergraduate (UG) and graduate (G) student participants, so they can better compete as future biomedical researchers. We propose three Activities: Developmental Activities 1 & 2  Student Participation in Year Round and Summer Research Programs and Developmental Activity 3: Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Seminar Series (IBRSS). The following goals and objectives, established for each individual developmental activity, constitute the programmatic goals and objectives of the MSC MBRS RISE program. Programmatic Goal 1: Increase the interest in biomedical research careers, research skills and number of science UG RISE student participants that pursue advanced degrees in biomedical sciences. We will recruit 10 undergraduate science students/year and 15 summer students/year from the UPR System into research projects at the MSC. We aim to improve the knowledge of the RISE UG participants in biomedical sciences, the principles of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), the basics of scientific communication and how to successfully apply to Graduate schools. We aim to increase the number of UG and G RISE participants that travel to present their research studies and network with other scientists at national or international scientific meetings and engage in short research experiences in mainland US by providing travel funds and the number of UG students that enter graduate programs in the biomedical sciences after finishing their BS degree from 29 to 50%. Our Programmatic Goal #2 is: Increase the interest in research careers, scientific skills and competitiveness and the number of G RISE student participants that complete a Ph.D. degree and advance to competitive postdoctoral positions. We aim to develop 35 G students by providing financial support and developmental activities that will increase students' skills and competitiveness by improving the knowledge of the G participants in biomedical sciences, the principles of RCR, scientific communication and how to become successful researchers by offering research seminars, scientific writing workshops and instruction on RCR. We propose to increase the number of G students that present at national or international scientific meetings to enhance their scientific communication and networking skills or participate in research experiences outside of the island of Puerto Rico by providing funds for travel to these meetings or for short training experiences and the research productivity of the G students in terms of a 10% increase per year in the average number of publications at peer-reviewed journals and the number of G students who advance to post-doctoral positions from 60% to 80%. Programmatic Goal 3: To enhance the research environment at the UPR-MSC and expose RISE mentors, UG and G students to top biomedical researchers by the establishment of a dynamic Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Seminar Series (IBRSS). Our objectives are: To increase the exposure of UPR-MSC faculty, UG and G students to state-of-the-art, forefront knowledge in interdisciplinary areas of biomedical sciences by coordinating at least eight annual seminar presentations from different disciplines, with productive biomedical scientists from major research laboratories outside of Puerto Rico; To promote the establishment of associations and networking between UPR-MSC faculty and productive biomedical scientists by stimulating the open discussion of diverse, interdisciplinary research topics in biomedical sciences between UPR-MSC G and UG students and visiting scientists; To improve the comprehension and critical thinking skills of participating students by providing them scientific articles published by invited speakers and promoting the discussion of research findings with the authors and the oral presentation skills of our G students by requiring them to make short presentations in the seminar series. The Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program was created in response to a legislative mandate to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty, investigators and students engaged in biomedical and behavioral research, and to broaden the opportunities for underrepresented minority faculty and students for participation in biomedical and behavioral research. The MBRS RISE Program at the UPR MSC, currently in its seventh year of support, requests support to continue to expand the overall impact and value of the program. Its overall goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavioral research, focusing on the development of its URM undergraduate (UG) and graduate (G) student participants, so they can better compete as future biomedical researchers. We propose three Activities: Developmental Activities 1 & 2  Student Participation in Year Round and Summer Research Programs and Developmental Activity 3: Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Seminar Series (IBRSS).