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$1.2M grant award for post-doctoral work by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations Encouraging minority college students to pursue fields in biomedical science and enhance careers of postdoctoral trainees is the goal of a new MUSC collaboration. A $1.2 million grant was committed to MUSC by the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) through the National Institute of General Medicine Sciences (NIGMS) for this purpose.   MUSC was notified of the award in June by NIGMS director of the Division of Minority Opportunities in Research Clifton A. Poodry, Ph.D. The grant will fund three postdoctoral scholars who, in addition to conducting research at MUSC, will teach at Claflin University, a historically minority-serving institution located in Orangeburg.   The MUSC/Claflin IRACDA program is one of only 11 awarded since IRACDA first began issuing grants six years ago.   “NIGMS is pleased to partner with MUSC and Claflin on this important program aimed at developing the next generation of university faculty and biomedical researchers,” Poodry said. “The IRACDA program is an innovative way to provide a rich training activity for post-docs while making an important contribution to the teaching and infrastructure at minority-serving institutions.”   MUSC’s goal is to address several challenges in the training of contemporary academic biomedical research scientists: a lack of structured, mentored career development programs that adequately prepare postdoctoral fellows for both teaching and research; limited research infrastructure and research-oriented courses at many minority-serving institutions; and difficulties in maintaining the interest level and commitment of minority students to pursue biomedical science careers.   The program will be co-directed by Cynthia F. Wright, Ph.D., assistant dean for admissions in the College of Graduate Studies, and Edward Krug, Ph.D., assistant dean for postdoctoral affairs in the College of Graduate Studies. Elements of the program will foster collaboration between Claflin and MUSC faculty, and financial resources should provide Claflin students experience with contemporary tools.   Perry Halushka, M.D., Ph.D., Graduate Studies dean, said it was remarkable that the grant was awarded after the first proposal. He credited Joann Sullivan, Ph.D., assistant dean for extramural program development, with spotting the opportunity and for the exemplary work by her, Wright and Krug in preparing it.   “The awarding of this training grant is significant for the following reasons: it represents an enormous accomplishment on the part of Drs. Wright, Krug and Sullivan to obtain this grant on the first submission; it will provide training for our postdoctoral fellows to become outstanding teachers as well as outstanding scientists; and it represents a great collaboration between the Medical University and Claflin College, for which both institutions will benefit,” Halushka said.   Students also will be encouraged to participate in a 10-week summer undergraduate program at MUSC to offer them in-depth experience performing rigorous research projects to spark intellectual curiosity. The overall goal is to instill a desire in minority students to pursue productive research careers.   “This program is a great way for Claflin and MUSC to use their complementary strengths to improve both postdoctoral training and undergraduate education,” Wright said. “As a result of increased programmatic ties between the two schools, we hope that more Claflin students will participate in the MUSC Summer Undergraduate Research Program, have a good experience in that program, and ultimately matriculate into graduate school. As assistant dean for Admissions in MUSC’s College of Graduate Studies, I’ll have more opportunities to meet these students early on to offer them any additional encouragement and experience they may need to consider future careers in the biomedical sciences.”   “While the majority of postdoctoral researchers desire faculty positions, their training is most always exclusively laboratory-based.”  Krug said. “Pursuit of instructional opportunities is discouraged due to a combination of funding constraints (i.e., research grants support research activities) and pressures to publish.  Moreover, most opportunities for developing instructional skills are generally limited in duration and scope of involvement, yielding only marginal impact on the scholar’s capacity to transition from bench scientist to junior faculty with both teaching and research responsibilities. The MUSC/Claflin co-operative program is designed to fill this gap in training of aspiring academic scientists while enhancing the learning experience of undergraduate students interested in pursuing graduate training.”     Verlie Tisdale, Ph.D., Claflin’s dean of Natural Science and Mathematics, said the collaborative venture is representative of both institutions’ goal of maximizing resources to further strengthen the state’s pool of promising scientists.     “Claflin University has a history of producing students that play a significant role in the education of the citizens of South Carolina. This grant will play an integral role in our commitment to academic excellence and helping Claflin University realize its long range goals of expanding collaborations with other institutions and organizations and implementing a comprehensive undergraduate research program,” Tisdale said. “It will allow our students to be taught and mentored by postdoctoral researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina thereby stimulating their intellectual curiosity and increasing their preparation for scientific research. This in turn would produce a cadre of highly qualified teacher researchers that would increase the research capacity of South Carolina and ensure her future in scientific endeavors.”   NIGMS supports basic biomedical research that increases understanding of life processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. NIGMS’ Division of Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) administers research and research training programs aimed at increasing the number of minority biomedical and behavioral scientists.   IRACDA stems from concerns raised in 1998 regarding minority-serving institutions in North Carolina needing more modern curricula and instruction for their students. A full list of IRACDA grant programs can be obtained at: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/Mechanisms/CareerDev/PartInstIRACDA.ht.     More information on Claflin University can be obtained at http://www.claflin.edu/.     Friday, July 20, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.