The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has been awarded a multimillion-dollar grant to provide undergraduate-level college students with unique research opportunities.
The nearly $19 million award will continue to fund JABSOM‘s Institutional Development Award Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program, which supports students with an affinity for science by providing hands-on laboratory time and mentoring in biomedical research.
INBRE offers college students statewide “eye-opening” experiences, according to Robert Nichols, principal investigator and director.
“It’s often transformative for their careers, with many continuing on to graduate school, medical school or other professional schools, or to science-related employment,” said Nichols.
Over the past 17 years, the Hawaiʻi INBRE program has received continuous funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which has led to the creation of a Hawaiʻi Statewide Research and Education Partnership.
“The fundamental idea is to really build up research at a grassroots level,” said Nichols.
In addition to inspiring high-quality scientific research by undergraduates at Hawaiʻi community colleges and universities, INBRE also aims to support junior faculty scientists at those institutions.
“The students get so enthused,” said Jon-Paul Bingham, director of the Student PATHway to Biomedical Careers and UH Mānoa campus coordinator. “You plant a seed where before the students were not really exposed to doing laboratory research. When they start getting a ‘bite of that cherry,’ they want more and more.”
For more information, see the JABSOM website.
—By Deborah Manog Dimaya
