Minority Biomedical Research Support Program

The Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program aims to help fill the nation's shortage of minority men and women in biomedical research careers. As an MBRS undergraduate or doctoral student, you will be mentored by Rutgers-Newark faculty members to perform biomedical and/or behavioral laboratory research. You will receive a salary, research supplies, and travel funds to participate in scientific conferences. Doctoral students will receive full tuition remission. You will be guided to develop your own research project, analyze and present your research findings at professional scientific conferences, and co-author publications based on your research.

MBRS Student Eleni Frangos and Program Director Dr. Barry Komisaruk reviewing brain activity  images from their research.  Eleni is holding a preserved human brain slice for reference. The images are of regional activity of Eleni’s own brain.

Barry Komisaruk, Ph.D., Director

MBRS Program

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Hill Hall Room 404

Newark, New Jersey 07102

Telephone: (973)353-5772

e-mail:  brk@andromeda.rutgers.edu

 

Rutgers-Newark  MBRS Students’ Career Trajectories

More than 125 students have graduated from our MBRS Program. Our baccalaureates have continued on to graduate and medical schools including Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Boston Universities.  Our Ph.D.s have continued on to Postdoctoral Fellowships at Harvard, Yale, and Rockefeller Universities, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, MIT, The Mayo Clinic, and other institutions.  Several of our students entered into tenure-track faculty positions at campuses of the University of Puerto Rico and other universities and won their own competitive federal grants.

 

Funding

Funding for our MBRS Program is provided by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), plus a supplement from Rutgers University to provide salary supplements to the graduate students.  Our MBRS Program is currently in its 25th continuous year.

 

 

MBRS Honors Student Kayla Kelly, MBRS Mentor, Dr. Mauricio Delgado (left) and recent Ph.D., Dr. Anthony Porcelli  (research subject), measuring the effect of cold stress (induced by ice pack on left arm) via the monitoring of galvanic skin responses (attached to right fingers), during a decision-making task involving gambling.

As an MBRS student, you will participate in weekly meetings where you present your research findings to the other students and at which you will have the opportunity to meet invited visiting minority biomedical scientists from other universities, who present their research and discuss their career experiences.

Participating University Departments

Biological Sciences

Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN)

Chemistry

Nursing

Physics

Psychology