MBRS SCORE Program at UPR, Medical Sciences Campus

University Of Puerto Rico Med Sciences, San Juan PR

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This equipment supplement application by the MBRS SCORE Program, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico (MSC-UPR) provides innovative and enhanced means to accomplish the goals of biomedical research supported by the parent program. Equipment in this supplement will augment and upgrade four extant multi-user facilities utilized by a minimum of eleven current MBRS SCORE researchers as well as other researchers on the Medical Sciences Campus. The four multi-user facilities which will benefit are the: (1) Central Electron Microscope Unit; (2) MBRS SCORE Core Facility; (3) Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope Neurobiology Facility; and (4) Computer / Local Area Network Core Neurobiology Facility. Each of the four facilities also receives support from other multi-user programs and thus this supplement will take advantage of existing infrastructure and technical support to rapidly enhance the achievement of research goals in current and future MBRS SCORE projects as well as have a significant impact on the research environment and infrastructure on the Medical Sciences Campus as a whole. The parent MBRS SCORE Program currently supports 19 faculty members: 15 (12 regular and 3 pilot) projects funded in August 2000 and 4 (3 regular and 1 pilot) projects added in August 2001 via a competing supplement. Another competing supplement is currently pending to add additional projects in 2002. The primary goal of this highly successful MBRS SCORE Program is to provide faculty an opportunity to generate sufficient data to publish in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals and to support grant applications for independent health-related research. Close coordination between the MBRS SCORE and MBRS RISE Programs provides quality research opportunities on the MSC-UPR for undergraduate and graduate students (98% are Hispanic) thereby stimulating under-represented minority students to pursue careers in biomedically relevant research. Research in the parent MBRS SCORE Program which will benefit from equipment provided by this supplement include studies of the molecular biology of genetic disorders, vaccine development, malaria, and HIV as well as basic biomedical research in neurobiology, cell biology / anatomy, and biochemistry.