Student Research

Student Research:  Student Stimulus for Academic Research Careers
Awarding Agency:  National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Award No: 5 R25 CA1022209
Principal Investigator:  Derrick J. Beech, M.D.
Co-Principal Investigators:  Samuel Adunyah, PhD, Dana Marshall, PhD

Grant Summary:  Ethnic minorities and underserved populations suffer a disproportionate burden of cancer related morbidity and mortality.  Minority investigators may be an important resource to address this disparity, however, there are few highly trained minority cancer researchers equipped to focus on this concern.  The reasons behind this under representation include insufficient exposure to research during undergraduate medical education and lack of mentorship towards academic careers.  One strategy to correct this shortage is to mentor undergraduate minority medical students to careers as cancer researchers.  Meharry Medical College is a generalist producing, minority-serving institution whose curriculum has been oriented to primary care, and has not focused on training academic research oriented physician scientists.  In 2000, the National Cancer Institute awarded Meharry Medical College a U-54 Partnership Grant with the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.  This proposal describes a plan to significantly increase the number minority medical students who develop and maintain an interest in pursuing a career in cancer research by providing meaningful short-term research cancer experience to experienced cancer investigators at Meharry Medical College and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

The specific aims are to:

1. Identify and select promising medical students with a strong research interest in the biomedical, clinical, or epidemiologic aspects of cancer at a minority serving institution.
2. Match medical students with experienced cancer researchers involved in ongoing research projects.
3. Facilitate a short-term research exposure of medical students and cancer researchers.   
4. Provide a venue for the dissemination of student research findings among student peers and cancer researchers.
5. Advise and mentor the selected students through the residency match selection process.
6. Track the selected students through residency training and ultimate career choice.