Project Summary The VCU Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program has had an outstanding record of educating underrepresented scholars in biomedical research since its inception in 2010. The IMSD program previously supported as a R25 is now being formalized under a T32 mechanism while maintaining the rigor and excellence of training underrepresented minorities in biomedical sciences. The program has enrolled 26 pre- doctoral students and graduated 10 scholars with a PhD, with 13 that are currently in training. Our graduates have gone on to careers as scientists in biomedical industries and into postdoctoral research positions at highly prestigious institutions. The VCU IMSD program has a strong emphasis on mentorship with faculty receiving mentorship training. Safe lab practices, rigor and reproducibility and quantitative studies are essential elements within this training program to ensure that we develop a diverse pool of scientists with skills to impact biomedical research. The IMSD program is housed within the Center on Health Disparities and forms part of an integrative cohort of NIGMS supported research training programs. Three students per year will be selected from a growing pool of applicants to the biomedical research programs at VCU School of Medicine and receive funding for two years, resulting in a cohort of 6 funded scholars/year. The VCU IMSD T32 is an interdisciplinary program with state-of-the-art biomedical research training in diverse disciplines (Neuroscience, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Physiology and Biophysics, Molecular and Human Genetics). In addition to the discipline specific requirements, the IMSD program will provide curricular activities that include opportunities to engage in health disparities courses. Incorporating health disparities courses into graduate-level curriculum will be of additional value in developing competencies necessary for biomedical professions and in motivating students to help eliminate health disparities during their diverse careers. IMSD scholars will be accepted into the program early and exposed to a pre-PhD program during summer prior to matriculation to their PhD programs. The pre-PhD program will focus on developing critical thinking skills, provide laboratory research and mini- course in Biochemistry to prepare students for the rigor of graduate training. Mentors will receive training in several aspects of mentoring including effective communication and developing compacts with the mentees. A cohort of faculty members have been trained as facilitators for mentoring, including the PI’s of this training grant. The long-term goal of this program is to increase the applicant pool of underrepresented minorities to the PhD programs and facilitate trainees to pursue biomedical research as a career path. It is expected that the VCU IMSD program will continue to enrich the individual student scholar, the broader learning community and the nations system of higher education.

Project Narrative The future of medicine depends on biomedical research and the new discoveries that research brings to disease mechanisms. However, disparities exist, not only in healthcare and disease but also in researchers who push biomedicine forward. The VCU IMSD program is intended to address this disparity by increasing the number of underrepresented minorities who pursue PhD level training in biomedical research.