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Ph.D. students winners at trainee research forum Shantae James, a third year M.D./Ph.D student, mentored by Steven Kubalak, Ph.D., and Octavia Peck, a second year Ph.D. student mentored by James A. Cook, Ph.D., were both named national abstract competition winners by the The Minority Trainee Research Forum held in San Diego, Calif., from March 15-19.  Both students were selected to receive one of 72 travel awards. They presented their research both in oral presentation and poster sessions entitled, “Characterization of the Epicardium in the Cardiac Defects of the RXR Alpha Knockout Mouse” and “The Gram-Positive Bacteria Staphylococcus aureus Induces Homologous Tolerance But Induces Priming to Gram-Negative Bacterial Endotoxin (LPS): A Potential Role of Interferon-gamma (IFNg)” respectively, during the 2002 Invitational Scientific Meeting. The Minority Trainee Research Forum brought together postdoctoral fellows, graduate, M.D./ Ph.D., medical, undergraduate, and high school students. Institutions represented ranged from Harvard Medical School, Baylor College of Medicine, Northwestern University, Brown University, Engineering and Science High School and many more nationwide.  This meeting was sponsored by NIH-National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney, NIH-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, NIH-Office of Research on Women’s Health and Merck and Company. The Minority Trainee Research Forum is under the direction of Moses Williams, Ph.D., and Frank Azeke, Ed.D., with its headquarters located on the campus of Temple University through the Physician Training Program.  This program strives to expose minority children, as young as the second grade to research. The program provides them with summer research opportunities until they reach high school when they begin conducting research in numerous distinct universities under the direction of prestigious mentors.