The Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program provides a salary and a mentored laboratory research experience for minority students in the biomedical sciences at Rutgers-Newark. Graduate students in the program also receive full tuition remission. Funded by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the program supports graduate and undergraduate students supervised by faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, and psychology; the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience; and the College of Nursing.
Our MBRS program, in its 24th year of continuous funding, addresses the underrepresentation of minority men and women in the United States in biomedical careers. It provides student participants with an intensive laboratory experience that includes mentoring to design and carry out their research project, present their findings at weekly MBRS seminars and then at professional scientific conferences, and ultimately publish their research as coauthors in professional scientific journals.
MBRS students are expected to work a minimum of 15 hours a week supervised by a faculty mentor and interact in research seminars presented by visiting national and international minority scientists. They receive annual financial support for their research, which includes supplies for their laboratory, in addition to expenses for travel to participate in scientific conferences.
More than 130 students have graduated from the MBRS Program--19 Ph.D.'s, 25 masters, and 86 baccalaureates. They have then continued their career development at leading universities, e.g., through funded postdoctoral positions at Harvard, Yale, and Rockefeller universities and the Mayo Clinic. Others among our MBRS graduates have proceeded to graduate or medical schools, including Boston University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Three MBRS alumni now hold tenured faculty positions at the University of Puerto Rico.
Application to the MBRS Program can be downloaded from the website: http://mbrs.newark.rutgers.edu and mailed or delivered in person at the office on the Newark Campus in Hill Hall, Room 401.
