EDUCATION AND TRAINING CORE

Winston-Salem State University, Winston Salem NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Since its founding in 1892 as Slater Industrial Academy, WSSU has always been known as a teaching institution. Even now, with convincing evidence of its institutional commitment to scholarly research[unreadable]in 2005 the university opened its $12.1 million science center, home to the Departments of Life Science and Chemistry and equipped with modern research laboratories[unreadable]WSSU maintains its historic commitment to training. Only now, as the region solidifies its transformation into a knowledge-based economy dependent on the life sciences and biotechnology, the level of training and education necessary continues to reach new heights. No less than six of the proposed collaborative research and pilot studies will provide significant opportunities for junior faculty, graduate students or undergraduates to receive hands-on training in the methods and manners of scientific research. In fact, the PI of Collaborative Project 4, "Analysis of Intergenic Regions Selected for Insertion by the Retrotransposon Tfl," Dr. Teresa Singleton, is Program Coordinator for WSSU's Undergraduate Biotechnology Program. She has two biotechnology majors working with her on projects related to the goals of her lab. Like the Undergraduate Biotechnology Program itself, this training core will present students and junior faculty alike with opportunities for hands-on training, only within the framework of minority health and disparities research. Still, there are a myriad of education and training possibilities in the field ranging from basic bench research to multidisciplinary studies at the interface of the behavioral and biological sciences. Collaborative Project 3, "Protein Markers of Type 2 Diabetes in African-Americans," and Collaborative Project 5, "Psychosocial Stress and Hypertension Measured by a-Amylase," are good examples of this. One of the core's educational challenges will be in showing students and faculty in the behavioral sciences and their colleagues in the molecular sciences how their research interests could easily intersect in the study of health disparities. Other research proposals with education components include Collaborative Project 6, "Provider Patient- Centeredness and Disparities Outcome Measurement Initiative," and Pilot Projects 1, 3, 4 and 8, respectively, "Ethnic Differences in Diabetic &Non-Diabetic Skin from Normal &Inflamed Tissue," "Increasing e-Health Literacy to Decrease Health Disparities," "Assessing Balance, Gait, and Falls in Elderly African-Americans with Hypertension," and, "Symptom Prevention and Management in African American Women with Breast Cancer." Given the interdisciplinary possibilities inherent within disparities research, our target student population runs the gamut of academic disciplines on campus. Therefore, we intend to recruit two minority undergraduate students per project with appropriate backgrounds and intent to pursue a career related to minority health or health disparities. WSSU already has several funded programs aimed at recruiting qualified minority students to take careers in the sciences. Through its Education and Training Core, the proposed EXPORT Center will modify some of those objectives and incorporate them as its own, including: [unreadable] Training students in hands-on methods in areas of disparities-related research [unreadable] Introducing students to the social and ethical issues related to minority health and disparities [unreadable] Educating the community on various disparities-related issues [unreadable] Developing a deep respect and understanding of disparities research within the scientific community.