MARC Honors Undergraduate Research Training Program

City College Of New York, New York NY

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed MARC U*STAR program is to further increase the number of qualified URM undergraduates who continue their education at the Ph.D. level in the biomedical sciences. The project will consist of activities that represent a coordinated program that includes undergraduate recruitment, extensive research experience, and graduate school preparation. These activities are centered around the College Honors Sequence, coupled with specific courses for the MARC trainees to prepare them for the rigors of postgraduate training. In the previous funding period we made significant progress in implementing a more stringent student recruitment and selection process to screen out candidates interested in pursuing careers in medicine or fields unrelated to biomedical research; increasing numbers of MARC trainees from City College are now being admitted to doctoral programs in the biomedical sciences. Core goals of our program remain student recruitment and selection, and advisement and preparation for graduate school. Students will be placed in the laboratories of faculty in the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Physics. We will expand the pool of appropriate mentors and trainees with faculty and students from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, Biomedical Engineering, and Psychology. We will also take advantage of the initiative by the City University of New York to expand science infrastructure; for example trainees interested in working on projects in structural biology will have access to state-of-the-art instrumentation for structural analyses of biomolecules at the newly constructed New York Structural Biology Center, and trainees interested in cancer research will be able to take advantage of opportunities created by City College's partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The implementation of the new MARC U*STAR program will benefit top science students, both trainees as well as non-trainees, thereby meeting the goals of strengthening the capability of the college to train students in the sciences, and enhancing their research training experience at City College.